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down, and just as Beech had done several years earlier, Clyde Cessna left the company to build an airplane on his own.The stock market crash of 1929 slowed the aviation business to a crawl, and in 1930, the Curtiss- Wright Aeronautical Corporation, now the owner of Travel Air, shut down the Wichita plant in favor of moving the operation to St. Louis. The company continued to develop airplanes, but Walter was unhappy with what he considered his “executive” duties.Dividing his time between New York and St. Louis, Beech began discussing a new airplane with Ted Wells, Travel Air’s chief designer. He had seen Travel Air grow from a three-man operation to one of the most respected producers of general aviation airplanes in a scant five years, but by this time, Curtiss-Wright had stopped Travel Air production entirely. Frustratedwith the lack of interest the Curtiss- Wright executives showed toward any new development ideas, Beech took a familiar path – he once again set out on his own.BeechcraftThough his decision to leave Travel Air and return to Wichita came with many uncertainties, Beech had a new partner in his wife, Olive Ann. Olive had been his “gal Friday” since the inception of the Travel Air Company where Lloyd Stearman had hired her as a secretary. She was a steady source of courage and support as the intrepid few employees of the infant Beech Aircraft Company struggled through the low point of one of the worst financial depressions the world had ever seen. An old friend, Clyde Cessna, offered Walter a corner of his temporarily closed factory in which to begin operations. In that old factory, a handful of Beechemployees worked tirelessly on the new design, dubbed the Model 17.The biplane was in many respects conventional. It had steel tubing for the fuselage and wood formers covered by fabric. In many ways, however, its design was anything but the usual. Its wings were designed with a negative stagger – partly for increased visibility, and partly to give the airplane docile stall characteristics. The wing spars were steel in a time where wood spars were still the norm. Every exposed part was covered with beautifully crafted fairings. The gear was nestled in enormous wheel pants, and in later models retracted altogether – even the tailwheel. Beech even added electric trim that used a jackscrew to adjust the tail feathers.All of this came in a package that Beech decided would reach 200 miles an hour and land at 60 or less – performance goals that were unheardPaul Half Page 4/C AdMARCH 2011­TWIN & TURBINE • ­35