Page 26 - May 2022

Thunder Birds –
The Mighty Beechcraft A17 Biplanes
The Model A17F and A17FS were like no other Beechcrafts ever built – powerful, brutish machines whose high performance was nothing short of spectacular for their time.
by Edward H. Phillips
IN HISTORY
Despite America’s bleak economic situation, Walter Beech and his chief engineer, Ted Wells, held tenaciously to the belief that there was a small, but profitable market for a single-engine, high-performance business aircraft. In 1932, the first Model 17R had proven that such an airplane could be built, but would it sell? Time would tell. Undaunted, Beech also offered the Model 17 airframe mated to a Wright “Cyclone” air-cooled, radial engine and dubbed the combination the A17F.
As 1933 drew to a close Walter Beech and his infant airplane company had sold one airplane – the second Model 17R built – and had orders in hand for two additional aircraft. Unlike the first Beechcraft, however, these two machines were to be powered by fire-breathing, nine-cylinder Wright Cyclone radial engines. The first ship built, the Model A17F, mounted an R-1820F11 rated at 690 hp; the second, the A17FS, was equipped with a supercharged SR-1820F3 engine that produced an earth- shaking 710 hp.
Advertisements for the powerful Beechcraft had caught the attention of a company in New England. The first A17F was ordered by the Goodall- Worsted/Sanford Mills company to fly corporate officers to its various clothing factories operating in several states. The second ship had been ordered and was designed specifically to compete in the MacRobertson International Trophy Race scheduled for 1934. The grueling, 12,000- mile route would begin at London and end at Melbourne, Australia.
24 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MAY 2022