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IN HISTORY
Walter’s Warbird
The Beechcraft Model 17 was not only Walter Beech’s bestselling airplane during the late 1930s, but it proved to be a military workhorse that served the Allied nations with distinction during World War II.
by Edward Phillips
Walter Herschel Beech was a salesman – a very good salesman. He and his wife, Olive Ann, had co- founded the Beech Aircraft Company in 1932 and by the mid-1930s had come perilously close to bankruptcy more than once. Working together as a team along with their handful of employees, they barely managed to survive the vagaries of a ruthless economic depression. By 1939, however, the future looked much brighter. Market dominance of the Model 17 cabin biplane and the growing popularity of the all-metal Model 18 had propelled sales to the million-dollar mark for the first time in the company’s history.
Military sales were not high on Walter Beech’s list of priorities, but he did realize that there was a small, but profitable, market for the Model 17 in uniform. The United States Navy was the first to acquire a military Beechcraft. In 1936, a C17R was delivered to the service under the designation JB-1. Three years later, the U.S. Army held a competition to acquire a fast, efficient utility transport. The D17S defeated its opponents and three airplanes were ordered carrying the designation YC-43.
These ships were “off-the-shelf” commercial airplanes fitted with minimal military-specific equipment. No technical changes were required to meet the Army’s specifications. Delivered in June 1939, all three YC-43s were assigned to duty as transports for military and government personnel serving at the American embassies in London, Rome and Paris. Not to be outclassed by the Army, the Navy soon placed an order for seven D17S biplanes under the designation GB-1. These airplanes were assigned to naval bases and air stations where they served as liaison and VIP transports.
24 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
The Army and Navy, however, were not the only customers who saw the value of Walter Beech’s Staggerwing as a military machine. The Brazilian Navy added to the company’s order book when it plunked down a handsome check for two Model D17A airplanes in 1939. Delivered in November 1939, both ships were powered by a Wright Aeronautical R-760 static, air-cooled radial engine rated at 350 hp. Before America’s entry into the war in December 1941, Beech Aircraft Corporation (the name was changed from “Company” to “Corporation” in September 1936) sold an undisclosed number (possibly as many as 11) of modified Model D17S aircraft to China. Painted white overall with large red crosses on the fuselage and above the cabin, they operated as air ambulances during that nation’s war against the invading Japanese.
To this day these airplanes are surrounded by an aura of mystery. Very little is known about their modifications and delivery. Although photographs exist that were taken at the factory and in China, no records within Beech Aircraft’s archives are known to survive that document
MAY 2023