Beech Aircraft Corporation
3 types · 2 airframes
Pre-1950 Narrative
Beech Aircraft Company was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 by Walter Beech as president, his wife Olive Ann Beech as secretary, Ted A. Wells as vice president of engineering, K. K. Shaul as treasurer, and investor C. G. Yankey as vice president. With designer Ted Wells, they developed the first aircraft under the Beechcraft name, the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing, which flew in November 1932. Over 750 Staggerwings were built, including 352 for the United States Army Air Forces and 67 for the United States Navy during World War II. Beechcraft was not Beech's first company, as he had previously helped form Travel Air in 1924 and the design sequence used at Beechcraft followed Travel Air's, which were continued at Curtiss-Wright, after Travel Air had been absorbed in 1929. In 1942 Beech won its first Army-Navy "E" Award production award and was among the five percent of war contracting firms to win five straight awards for production efficiency, mostly for the twin-engine Model 18 Expeditor transport which remains in widespread use worldwide. It has remained in production since 1947, and has had the longest production run of any airplane.
Aircraft Types
Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita
The Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita was a twin-engined advanced trainer built by Beech Aircraft Corporation at Wichita, Kansas, primarily from wood, so that aluminium could be spared for combat aircraft. First flown in 1941, it trained United States Army Air Forces pilots making the transition from single-engined trainers to multi-engined fighters, transports and bombers. Beech built 1,771 in 1942–43 and Globe Aircraft a further 600 in 1944, 2,371 in all. The plywood structure weathered badly, and after the war most were scrapped or stripped for their engines; one intact example survives at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, and one is being restored to fly.
Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing
The Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing is an American cabin biplane built by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. Its upper wing sits behind the lower one — the negative stagger that gave the type its name — and with retractable landing gear and a powerful radial engine it was faster than most military aircraft when it first flew in 1932. Sold as a fast executive transport and raced successfully in the 1930s, it served in the Second World War as the UC-43, GB and Traveller; 785 were built before the last was delivered in 1949.
Beechcraft Model 18
The Beechcraft Model 18 is a twin-engined light transport built by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. First flown in 1937, it remained in production for thirty-two years, and more than 9,000 were built in thirty-two versions. Designed as an executive and feeder-airline aircraft, it served worldwide in civil transport and utility work and, in military service, as a staff transport and as a trainer for navigators and bombardiers. Hundreds survive, in museums and in private hands.