Page 22 - Volume 11 Number 5

The “Baby Beechcraft”
Part One
In the wake of World War II, America’s lightweight aviation market continued to expand and attract
During the early 1960s, Beech Aircraft Corporation’s Model 23 “Musketeer” marked the company’s foray into the highly competitive, entry-level segment of the general aviation industry.
by Edward H. Phillips
airplane market exploded as many pilots who had
flown fighter and bomber aircraft came home and started flying schools across the United States. As a result, during 1946-1947 there was enormous demand for new aircraft. The war had proven the value of aviation, whether military or commercial, and the American public accepted flying with almost the same enthusiasm as it had embraced the automobile in the 1920s.
Late in 1944, airframe companies in Wichita, Kansas, which had provided thousands of training and liaison aircraft during the war, began development of new models and prepared for the massive downshift from war-time to peace-time production. Beech Aircraft Corporation, under the guidance of co-founders Walter H. and Olive Ann Beech, was developing the all-metal Model 35 “Bonanza” that would replace the classic, but aging, Model 17 biplane – an icon whose time had passed.
Across town at the Cessna Aircraft Company, Dwane Wallace was tooling up production to build the two- place Model 120 and Model 140, while far to the east in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, William “Bill” Piper Sr. was gearing up to build hundreds of the famous J-3 “Cub,” alongside the new PA-11 “Super Cub” and PA- 12 “Super Cruiser.” Other, smaller companies such as Taylorcraft, Aeronca and Interstate, planned to resume building “warmed-over” versions of their pre-war ships to meet the onslaught of demand from flight schools and private pilots.
Unfortunately, early in 1947, demand for small aircraft suddenly and inexplicably collapsed. It happened so fast that some thought it rivaled the disastrous stock market crash of 1929. Aviation leaders scratched their heads trying to figure out the cause, but it soon became apparent that the quintessential villain was overproduction and complacency fueled by the quest for quick and easy profits. Piper, Taylorcraft, Aeronca and the other small manufacturers had lost touch with the post-war market’s changing concept of what a small airplane should be. A new generation of would-be aviators viewed their products as dull, uncomfortable and saddled with lackluster performance. Simply stated, airplanes that sold well in 1940 were soundly rejected by 1948.
thousands of new student pilots, management at the company realized that they were missing a potential marketing opportunity. By 1960, Cessna Aircraft and Piper Aircraft were riding a new wave of prosperity. The two-place Cessna 150, four-place 172 and the speedy Model 210 were modern designs that were excellent values for the money. Piper, despite its product line of steel tube and fabric airplanes, was still experiencing strong demand for its aircraft. Unlike Cessna and Piper, who offered a product line designed to encourage pilots to step up to the next level of performance as their experience level increased, the high-performance and more expensive Model 35 was a pilot’s first introduction to the Beechcraft family.
All of that, however, was about to change. In 1961, Frank E. Hedrick, executive vice president, announced a major broadening of the company’s commercial product line that would “open new markets” to the worldwide retail sales organization. At the company’s annual Beechcraft International Distributor and Dealer Management Meeting, Hedrick unveiled an entirely new type of Beechcraft – the Model 23 “Musketeer.” It was hailed as the company’s entry-level airplane, priced well below the Model 35 at $13,300 with standard equipment. The low-wing Model 23 offered pilots a four-place cabin, 160-horsepower Lycoming O-320-D2B four-cylinder opposed piston engine, a cruising speed of 135 mph and a range of 899 statute miles.
According to Wyman L. Henry, vice president of marketing, Beech Aircraft was “launching a new way of life with the Beechcraft Musketeer.” The all-metal Model 23 would sell at a price competitive with one of the lowest-cost, four-place business aircraft available on the market – namely the 1962 Cessna Model 172C that sold for about $12,000. Henry pointed out (correctly) that the chief barrier to buying a Beechcraft had been its price, and the Model 23 would remove that barrier. In addition, “it would be possible for [Beechcraft] distributors and dealers to pioneer more widely in developing business aircraft from the ground up; to offer to the businessman who had never flown or owned any airplane, a Beechcraft in which he could start flying from the very first minute of his training in the art of flight.”1 According to the plan, as businessmen “discovered the benefits of business
During the 1950s, the Model 35 remained Beech
Aircraft’s entry-level airplane, but as the general flying and moved upward to faster, farther-ranging
20 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MAY 2017