United States · 1932–
Beechcraft
Beechcraft is an American brand of civil and military aircraft headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, owned by Textron Aviation since 2014. It was originally the brand of the Beech Aircraft Corporation, founded in 1932 by Walter Beech, whose catalogue ran from light single-engined types to twin turboprop transports, business jets and military trainers. The company signed some of the longest-lived general aviation designs in existence: the Model 17 Staggerwing biplane with its backward-staggered wings, the twin-engined Model 18 Expeditor, the single-engined Bonanza — in production since 1947, the longest continuous production run in aviation history — its twin-engined derivative the Baron, and the King Air and Super King Air turboprop family, built since 1964. Ownership has changed hands repeatedly: Raytheon bought the firm in 1980 and merged it in 1994 with the Hawker line, Goldman Sachs created Hawker Beechcraft in 2006, and that company's bankruptcy in 2012 gave way to a smaller Beechcraft Corporation, acquired by Textron at the end of 2013. Beechcraft and Cessna, historic cross-town rivals, now coexist as separate brands within the same group.
History
Foundation in Wichita
The Beech Aircraft Company was formed in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 with 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 the investor C. G. Yankey as vice president. It began work in an idle Cessna factory. This was not Beech's first venture: he had helped create Travel Air in 1924, absorbed by Curtiss-Wright in 1929, where he rose to president of the aeroplane division, a post he quit because it kept him away from production. On founding his own firm he took over Travel Air's original facilities and many of its people, and even continued its model numbering sequence. The first aircraft to carry the Beechcraft name was the Model 17 Staggerwing, which flew in November 1932; over 750 were built, 352 of them for the United States Army Air Forces and 67 for the Navy during the Second World War.
War, the Model 18 and the Bonanza
In 1942 the company won its first Army-Navy "E" production award and was among the handful of war contractors — five per cent of the total — to take it five times running, largely thanks to the twin-engined Model 18 Expeditor, a design with an extraordinarily long commercial life. After the war the Staggerwing was replaced by the Bonanza, a single-engined monoplane with a distinctive V-tail that entered production in 1947 and holds the longest continuous production run of any aeroplane, the tail becoming conventional on later versions. To that backbone were added the Baron, a twin-engined Bonanza derivative, and from 1964 the King Air and Super King Air turboprop line. Walter Beech died of a heart attack on 29 November 1950 and Olive Ann Beech took over as president and chief executive, a role she held until the company was sold. Ted Wells was succeeded as chief engineer by Herbert Rawdon, who retired in the early 1960s, and in 1973 the firm founded the Beechcraft Heritage Museum to preserve its historic aircraft.
Raytheon, Hawker and bankruptcy
On 8 February 1980 Beech was sold to the Raytheon Company. In 1993 Raytheon bought the Hawker business jet line from British Aerospace and in 1994 merged it with Beechcraft to form the Raytheon Aircraft Company; the Beechcraft brand was revived in 2002 to designate the Wichita-built aircraft once again. In 2006 Raytheon sold the subsidiary to Goldman Sachs, which renamed it Hawker Beechcraft. The company filed for bankruptcy on 3 May 2012 and emerged on 16 February 2013 as a new and considerably smaller entity, Beechcraft Corporation, retiring the Hawker name, dropping the jet line — while still supporting aircraft already delivered — and concentrating on the King Air, the T-6 and AT-6 trainer and light attack aircraft, the Bonanza and the Baron.
Textron Aviation
Financially sound again, the company was back up for sale in October 2013 and on 26 December Textron announced its purchase, including the discontinued Hawker jets; the deal closed in the first half of 2014 with government approval. Textron combined Beechcraft with Cessna — its historic Wichita rival, in a city that also hosted Stearman and Learjet — into a new light aircraft manufacturer, Textron Aviation, with expected annual savings of 65 to 85 million dollars, though it kept both brands separate. Under the Beechcraft name it still produces the Bonanza, the Baron, the King Air and Super King Air family, the Denali turboprop, the military C-12 Huron and the T-6 Texan II trainer derived from the Pilatus PC-9. The head office, the assembly lines and the test runway remain at Beech Factory Airport in Wichita, where the brand has lived since its foundation.
Catalog — Aircraft
- 1932
Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing Sheet pending
Variants (13)
- 17
- A17
- B17
- C17
- D17
- E17
- F17
- G17
- GB-1
- GB-2
- Traveller I
- UC-43 Traveler
- YC-43
- 1937
Beechcraft Model 18 Sheet pending
Variants (41)
- AT-11 Kansan
- AT-7A
- AT-7B
- AT-7C
- AT-7 Navigator
- C-45
- C-45A
- C-45B
- C-45F
- C-45G
- C-45H
- Expeditor I
- Expeditor II
- Expeditor III
- F-2
- JRB-1
- JRB-2
- JRB-3
- JRB-4
- Model 18A
- Model 18B
- Model 18D
- Model 18R
- Model 18S
- Model A18A
- Model A18D
- Model B18S
- Model C18S
- Model D18C
- Model D18S
- Model E18S
- Model G18S
- Model H18
- Model S18A
- Model S18B
- Model S18D
- Model SA18A
- Model SA18D
- SNB-1
- SNB-2
- SNB-5
- 1944
Beechcraft XA-38 Grizzly Sheet pending
- 1945
Beechcraft Bonanza Sheet pending
Variants (39)
- 35
- 35-33 Debonair
- 35-A33 Debonair
- 36
- A35
- A36
- A36AT
- A36TC
- B33 Debonair
- B35
- B36TC
- C33A Debonair
- C33 Debonair
- C35
- D35
- E33
- E33A
- E33B
- E33C
- E35
- F33
- F33A
- F33C
- F35
- G33
- G35
- G36
- H35
- J35
- K35
- M35
- N35
- O35
- P35
- S35
- T36TC
- V35
- V35A
- V35B
- 1947
Beechcraft Model 34 Sheet pending
- 1948
Beechcraft T-34 Mentor Sheet pending
Variants (7)
- Model 73 Jet Mentor
- T-34A
- T-34B
- T-34C-1
- T-34C Turbo-Mentor
- YT-34
- YT-34C
- 1949
Beechcraft Twin Bonanza Sheet pending
Variants (13)
- Model 50
- Model B50
- Model C50
- Model D50
- Model D50A
- Model D50B
- Model D50C
- Model D50E
- Model E50
- Model F50
- Model G50
- Model H50
- Model J50
- 1956
Beechcraft Travel Air Sheet pending
Variants (5)
- Model 95
- Model B95
- Model B95A
- Model D95A
- Model E95
- 1958
Beechcraft Queen Air Sheet pending
Variants (7)
- 65
- 70
- 80
- 88
- A65
- A80
- B80
- 1960
Beechcraft Baron Sheet pending
Variants (13)
- 56TC
- 58 Baron
- 58P Baron
- 58TC Baron
- 95-55
- 95-A55
- 95-B55
- 95-C55
- A56TC
- D55
- E55
- G58 Baron
- T-42A Cochise
- 1961
Beechcraft Musketeer Sheet pending
Variants (14)
- 19A
- 23 Musketeer
- A23-19
- A23-24
- A23A
- A23 Musketeer II
- A24
- A24R Sierra 200
- B19
- B23
- B24R Sierra 200
- C23
- C24R Sierra 200
- M19A
- 1963
Beechcraft U-21 Ute Sheet pending
Variants (19)
- EU-21A
- JRU-21D
- JU-21A
- JU-21G
- JU-21H
- RU-21A
- RU-21B
- RU-21C
- RU-21D
- RU-21E
- RU-21G
- RU-21H
- RU-21J Huron
- U-21A
- U-21D
- U-21F
- U-21G
- U-21H
- YU-21
- 1964
Beechcraft King Air Sheet pending
Variants (25)
- Model 100
- Model 65-90
- Model A100
- Model A100A
- Model A100C
- Model B100
- Model B90
- Model C100
- Model C90
- Model C90-1
- Model C90A
- Model C90B
- Model C90GT
- Model C90GTi
- Model C90GTx
- Model C90SE
- Model D90
- Model E90
- Model F90
- Model F90-1
- Model G90
- Model H90
- T-44A Pegasus
- T-44C Pegasus
- VC-6A
- 1966
Beechcraft Duke Sheet pending
Variants (3)
- 60
- A60
- B60
- 1972
Beechcraft Super King Air Sheet pending
Variants (21)
- CT-145E Expeditor II
- Model 200
- Model 200C
- Model 200CT
- Model 200T
- Model 300
- Model 350CER
- Model 360
- Model 360ER
- Model A200
- Model A200C
- Model A200CT
- Model B200
- Model B200C
- Model B200CGT
- Model B200CT
- Model B200GT
- Model B200T
- Model B300
- Model B300C
- T-54A Marlin II
- 1978
Beechcraft Skipper Sheet pending
- 1982
Beechcraft 1900
The Beechcraft 1900 is the 19-seat regional turboprop with which Beechcraft took the King Air family into scheduled airline work. It flew on 3 September 1982 and was built until October 2002, with 695 aircraft delivered.
- 1986
Beechcraft Starship Sheet pending
Variants (1)
- Model 115
- 1998
Beechcraft T-6 Texan II Sheet pending
Variants (11)
- AT-6B Wolverine
- AT-6E Wolverine
- AT-6TH Wolverine
- CT-156 Harvard II
- T-6A NTA Texan II
- T-6A Texan II
- T-6B Texan II
- T-6C Texan II
- T-6D Texan II
- T-6JP Texan II
- T-6TH Texan II
- 1998
Beechcraft Premier I Sheet pending
Variants (2)
- Premier I
- Premier IA
- 2021
Beechcraft Denali Sheet pending
- —
Beechcraft QU-22 Pave Eagle Sheet pending
Variants (3)
- QU-22B Pave Eagle II
- YAU-22A
- YQU-22A Pave Eagle I
- —
Beechcraft Model 99 Sheet pending
Variants (7)
- 99A Airliner
- 99 Airliner
- 99 Executive
- A99A Airliner
- B99 Airliner
- B99 Executive
- C99 Commuter
- —
Beechcraft C-12 Huron Sheet pending
Variants (19)
- C-12A
- C-12C
- C-12D
- C-12F
- C-12L
- C-12R
- C-12S
- C-12T
- C-12U
- C-12V
- NC-12B
- RC-12F
- RC-12M
- TC-12B
- UC-12B
- UC-12D
- UC-12F
- UC-12M
- UC-12W
- —
Beechcraft Duchess Sheet pending
Variants (2)
- Model 76 Duchess
- Model 76TC Duchess
- —
Beechcraft RC-12 Guardrail Sheet pending
Variants (9)
- RC-12D
- RC-12G
- RC-12H
- RC-12K
- RC-12N
- RC-12P
- RC-12Q
- RC-12X
- RC-12X+
- —
Beechcraft MQM-61 Cardinal Sheet pending
- —
Beechcraft AQM-37 Jayhawk Sheet pending
Variants (6)
- AQM-37A
- AQM-37C
- AQM-37D
- KD2B-1
- Q-12
- XKD2B-1
- —
Beechcraft L-23 Seminole Sheet pending
Variants (14)
- L-23A
- L-23B
- L-23D
- L-23E
- L-23F
- NU-8F
- RL-23D
- RU-8D
- U-8D
- U-8E
- U-8F
- U-8G
- XL-23C
- YL-23
- —
Beechcraft AT-10 Wichita Sheet pending