Beech Aircraft Corporation
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | General aviation |
| Founded | 1932 |
| Founders | Walter Beech, Olive Ann Beech |
| Headquarters | Wichita, Kansas, United States |
| Owner | Textron Aviation |
| Website | www |
Beechcraft is a brand of Textron Aviation since 2014. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation an American manufacturer of general aviation, commercial and military aircraft -- ranging from light single-engined aircraft to twin-engined turboprop transports, business jets, and military trainers. Beech later became a division of Raytheon and later Hawker Beechcraft -- before a bankruptcy sale turned its assets over to Textron (parent company of Beech's cross-town Wichita rival, Cessna Aircraft Company).
Beech Aircraft Company was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 by Walter Beech and his wife Olive Ann Beech. The company began operations in an idle Cessna factory. With designer Ted Wells, they developed the first aircraft under the Beechcraft name, the classic Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing, which first flew in November 1932. Over 750 Staggerwings were built, with 270 manufactured for the United States Army Air Forces during World War II.
Beechcraft was not Beech's first company, as he had previously formed Travel Air in 1924 and the design numbers used at Beechcraft followed the sequence started at Travel Air, and were then continued at Curtiss-Wright, after Travel Air had been absorbed into the much larger company in 1929. 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. Model numbers prior to 11/11000 were built under the Travel Air name, while Curtiss-Wright built the CW-12, 14, 15, and 16 as well as previous successful Travel Air models (mostly the model 4).
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