1978 Beechcraft Bonanza | Beech Bonanza F33C

Beechcraft was founded in Wichita, Kansas in 1932 by Walter H. Beech and his wife Olive Ann Mellor Beech.

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.

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 18 which remains in widespread use worldwide.

Other important Beech planes are the King Air / Super King Air line of twin-engine turboprops, in production since 1964, the Baron, a twin-engine 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.

1943 Beechcraft Staggerwing | Beech D. 17S Staggerwing

While the first few " Beechcraft " were built in the vacant Cessna Aircraft plant, which had also closed during the depression, Beech later leased and then bought the Travel Air plant from Curtis Wright and moved his factory to this plant.

On February 8, 1980, Beech Aircraft Corporation was purchased by the Raytheon Corporation and later renamed Hawker Beechcraft.

Cessna Aircraft Field and Beech Factory Airport, operated by manufacturers Cessna and Hawker Beechcraft, respectively, lie in east Wichita.

A PMDG Beechcraft 1900 | Beech 1900D of " American Flight Airways "; in AFA Express colors

* Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing AAF Beech UC / YC-43 Traveler ( Navy GB-1 / 2 )

* July 19 – Beech Model 26, prototype of the Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita

Beechcraft S18D " Twin Beech ": Serial Number: 177 Registration: N55681 Markings: Prairie Airways Ltd., 1937.

One of the founders of Travel Air was Walter H. Beech who quit shortly after it was amalgamated into Curtiss Wright and later formed the Beechcraft company where he would continue the numbering sequence with the Beechcraft 17 Staggerwing.

Mesa sold 24 Beech 1900s to Great Lakes, and returned the remaining Beech 1900s to Beechcraft / Raytheon.

Beechcraft Baron | Beech 95 used as Birddog

* 1941 – Philippine Airlines, the flag carrier of the Philippines took its first flight between Manila ( from Nielson Field ) to Baguio City with a Beechcraft Model 18 making the airline the first and oldest commercial airline in Asia operating under its original name.

In the 1970s, The Tim Conway Show paired Tim with Joe Flynn of McHale's Navy in a sitcom as owners-pilots of a one-plane ( a Beechcraft 18 ) airline operated by the pair.

* December 10 – Singer Otis Redding and four members of his back-up band, The Bar-Kays, are among six people killed in the crash of a Beechcraft 18 into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin.

Beechcraft AT-7 Navigator: see Beechcraft Model 18 Serial Number: 42-2438 Registration: N8073H Markings: U. S. Army Air Forces, World War II.

Beechcraft AT-11 " Kansan ": see Beechcraft Model 18 Serial Number: 41-9577 Registration: N6953C Markings: U. S. Army Air Forces, World War II.

Beechcraft UC-45J Expeditor: see Beechcraft Model 18 Serial Number: 29646 Registration: N1082 Markings: Civil Markings, N6000V.

Beechcraft UC-45J SNB-2 Navigator: sse Beechcraft Model 18 Serial Number: 39213 Markings: U. S. Navy, Los Alamitos NAS, California, 1967.

* A Beechcraft Model 18

By October 1945 SAHSA had also acquired a Douglas DC-3 and a Beechcraft Model 18.

* Beechcraft Model 18 ( 1937 )

* Beechcraft Model 18

In the 1960s, the airline operated Douglas DC-3s, a Beechcraft Model 18 and a Beechcraft Musketeer.

The fleet was joined in 1962 by a Beechcraft Model 18 executive aircraft, and a Bristol 170 which was leased from Iberia.

The Beechcraft Model 18 and many modern military aircraft such as the American F-14, F-15, and F / A-18 use this configuration.

# redirect Beechcraft Model 18

# redirect Beechcraft Model 18

# redirect Beechcraft Model 18

* Beechcraft Model 73 Jet Mentor Prototype for two seat tandem jet trainer.

* Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita, a World War II trainer airplane for the United States Army Air Forces

While attempting to land at Lewiston-Auburn Regional Airport in Auburn, Maine, the Beechcraft 99 commuter plane struck some trees short of the runway and crashed, killing all six passengers and two crew on board.

The plane, a 33-year-old Beechcraft King Air, was the oldest of its model still in operation.

* January 27 – A Beechcraft Super King Air 200 serving as the team plane of the Oklahoma State University men's basketball team crashes near Strasburg, Colorado, during a snowstorm, killing all 10 people on board.

A U. S. Army Beechcraft RU-8D Seminole reconnaissance plane represents the Army Airborne Signals Intelligence contribution in the Vietnam War.

Scaled Composites White Knight | White Knight carried Scaled Composites SpaceShipOne | SpaceShipOne aloft, with a Beechcraft Starship flying chase plane | chase.

Historically, the airport had nonstop and direct Douglas DC-9 jet service to Dallas Love Field with continuing, no change of plane service to Houston on Texas International Airlines ( which previously operated as TTa, Trans-Texas Airways, flying DC-9-10 jet service from Santa Fe to Albuquerque, Roswell and Midland / Odessa on a direct route to Dallas ), as well as nonstop service to Phoenix, AZ on America West Express, which utilized Beechcraft 1900 turboprop aircraft operated by regional carrier Mesa Airlines.