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Beech Aircraft Company
was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 by Walter Beech and his
wife Olive Ann Beech. The company began operations in an idle
Cessna factory. With designer Ted Wells, they developed the first
aircraft under the Beechcraft name, the classic Beechcraft Model
17 Staggerwing, which first flew in November 1932. Over 750 Staggerwings
were built, with 270 manufactured for the United States Army
Air Forces during World War II. Beechcraft was not Beech's first
company, as he had previously formed Travel Air in 1924 and the
design numbers used at Beechcraft followed the sequence started
at Travel Air, and were then continued at Curtiss-Wright, after
Travel Air had been absorbed into the much larger company in
1929. Beech became President of the Curtiss-Wright's airplane
division and VP of sales, but became dissatisfied with being
so far removed from aircraft production and quit to form Beechcraft,
using the original Travel Air facilities and employing many of
the same people. Model numbers prior to 11/11000 were built under
the Travel Air name, while Curtiss-Wright built the CW-12, 14,
15 and 16 as well as previous successful Travel Air models (mostly
the model 4). In 1942 Beech won its first Army-Navy "E"
Award production award and became one of the elite five percent
of war contracting firms in the country to win five straight
awards for production efficiency, mostly for the production of
the Beechcraft Model 18 which remains in widespread use worldwide.
Beechcraft ranked 69th among United States corporations in the
value of World War II military production contracts. After the
war, the Staggerwing was replaced by the revolutionary Beechcraft
Bonanza with a distinctive V-tail. Perhaps the best known Beech
aircraft, the single-engined Bonanza has been manufactured in
various models since 1947. The Bonanza has had the longest production
run of any airplane, past or present, in the world. Other important
Beech aircraft are the King Air/Super King Air line of twin-engined
turboprops, in production since 1964, the Baron, a twin-engined
variant of the Bonanza, and the Beechcraft Model 18, originally
a business transport and commuter airliner from the late 1930s
through the 1960s, which remains in active service as a cargo
transport. In 1950, Olive Ann Beech was installed as president
and CEO of the company, after the sudden death of her husband
from a heart attack on 29 November of that year. She continued
as CEO until Beech was purchased by Raytheon Company on 8 February
1980. Ted Wells had been replaced as Chief Engineer by Herbert
Rawdon, who remained at the post until his retirement in the
early 1960s. |
