"Witchita Classic"
by Ross Buckland

In 1924, Walter, Clyde Cessna, Lloyd Stearman formed Travel Air ManufacturingCompany and set up shop in Witchita, Kansas. Travel Air became the world's largest producer of both monoplane and biplane aircraft. Lloyd Stearman left in 1926 and started his own company. Clyde Cessna left in 1927 to start Cessna Aircraft. Walter stayed at Travel Air, and in 1929, merged with Curtiss-Wright Airplane Company and Walter became President of the Aircraft Division. He married in 1930 to Olive Ann Mellor, his secretary of 5 years. In 1932, he and Olive started Beech Aircraft Company. His mission was to build luxurious aircraft for executives. With less than twenty employees, including Ted Wells and Herb Rawdon, the first Beech Staggerwing Model 17was built in seven months.

The Model 17 was designed by Ted Wells. The prototype, model 17R, made it's first flight on November 4, 1932 and was piloted by Pete Hill. By 1934, Beechcraft had designed and built four models. They were the 17R, the A17F, the A17FS, and the B17L. All were fixed gear models with the exception of the B17L, which had a pneumatically retractable undercarriage. Of the four models, the B17L was the best model to meet the market demands, and became the first production model. Production continued until 1948. During World War II, 412 Staggerwings were produced for the military. Over 7000 military aircraft were produced and around 90% of the U.S. Army Air Forces navigators and 50% of the multi-engine pilots were trained using Walter's Twin Beech AT-17/C-45.

Following the war, Walter returned to commercial aircraft building and built 16 more powerful Beech Staggerwing (model G-17S, $29,000). 781 Staggerwing aircraft had been built and it was finally replaced by the "V" tailed Bonanza in 1947 which was much
cheaper to purchase ($8945) and was only 1460 lbs empty and had a top cruising speed of only 172mph . Staggerwing production ended in 1948, with the last aircraft leaving the factory in 1949.

2002 Wings Publishing