“Get pilots to the front!” That was the cry of Lieutenant General Barton K. Yount, head of the United States Army Air Forces Training Command (AAFTC), as 1942 dawned. He had been hand-picked by General Henry H. Arnold for the job and Yount was doing everything within his power to accelerate flight training at the…
As the Second World War engulfed Western Europe and the Mediterranean region, the Stearman Aircraft Company received massive orders for its Model 75 primary trainer that would train thousands of cadets and prepare America for a conflict it hoped to avoid. By 1936 the “New Deal” policies of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the United…
In 1934 amid the United States’ worst economic calamity, the Stearman Aircraft Company unveiled the utilitarian Model 70 – a landmark design that saved the company from extinction. Throughout the early 1930s Ben Selvin and the Crooners could often be heard on the radio belting out the popular song, “Happy Days Are Here Again.” It…
In 1927, Stearman Aircraft, Inc. struggled to meet demand for its Sport Commercial Model C2 biplane, but operators carrying the mail by air were soon clamoring for the Model C2M. According to records held by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), Stearman Aircraft, Inc., designated the airplanes built in California using constructor (serial) numbers 101-104. These…
In 1926 Lloyd Carlton Stearman bid Wichita, Kansas, farewell to go west and build biplanes, but a year later was back in town to stay. Walter H. Beech shook hands with his friend and associate at the Travel Air Manufacturing Company after flying the Travel Air Special – a handsome, custom-built biplane designed for speed.…
Weary of “flying a desk,” in 1932 Walter H. Beech dared to put wings on his name and build the finest business airplane money could buy. “I’m just a country boy. Go get a picture of me when I first came to Wichita. I’ve made good and I’m not afraid to say so,” Walter Beech…
By 1933 the Beech Aircraft Company was starved for cash and the future looked dim until a Texas oilman plunked down $12,000 for a custom-built Beechcraft. After more than one year in business, Walter H. Beech had yet to sell an airplane bearing his name. He had flown many demonstration flights in the first Beechcraft,…
Late in 1928 Walter H. Beech authorized development of the four-place Type 10 cabin monoplane, but by 1930 America’s deepening economic debacle had almost wiped out the once booming market for new airplanes. Fact: The aviation business is cyclical. Any pilot, mechanic, airframe or engine manufacturer, as well as companies operating under FAR Part 91,…
More than 80 years after it rolled out of Walter Beech’s Travel Air factory in Wichita, Kansas, one of only two Type 5000 cabin monoplanes known to exist has been resurrected to honor the birth of scheduled passenger service in North Texas. No other airplane typifies the diversity of our aviation heritage more than National…
In 1946 the realities of a postwar commercial airplane market forced Walter H. Beech to abandon a Beechcraft from the past in favor of a Beechcraft of the future. The Beechcraft Model 17 was more than a flying machine; it was legendary. From the moment it first took flight, the airplane endured the test of…