Why wasn't the Beech Travel Air called "Badger"?

Beechcraft's light twin-engine aircraft was developed and initially marketed under the name Badger. In 1956, a letter from the United States Air Force informed Beechcraft that the name had already been chosen as the reporting name for the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 bomber. The company then decided to revive the name Travel Air, from the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, Beechcraft's predecessor company.

The aircraft was conceived as a competitor to the Cessna 310 and the Piper Apache, and borrowed numerous design features from earlier Beechcraft models. Its basic design came from the Model 35 Bonanza, to which were added the T-34 Mentor's vertical stabilizer and two four-cylinder engines. In the 1958 model year, the powerplant consisted of two Lycoming O-360-A1A engines of 180 hp (130 kW) each at 2,700 rpm. At 75% power, the Travel Air was capable of 200 mph (170 kn; 320 km/h) at 7,500 ft.

The first flight took place on 6 August 1956. The model went on to serve as the basis for its own successor, the Baron.