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The unique and clean cockpit
The Army wanted a plane that could take off with a pilot and five troopers, clear a 40-foot obstruction in 1,700 feet, operating from a runway contaminated with sand and loose rocks. Beech proved their Model 50 could do just that. Im- mediately after, they crashed it (stalling at 50 feet AGL on the return landing). All six occupants walked away. Such crash-worthiness impressed the Army and effectively sealed the deal. Because the Korean War was ramping up, initial production was almost all to satisfy military demands, and 99 L-23s were delivered before consistent civilian sales be- gan in 1953. A few initial buyers were Whirlpool, Lockheed, Outboard Marine, Marathon Oil, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and Lufthansa Airlines (for pilot training). By the time production ceased in 1963, just shy of 1,000 Twin Bonanzas had been built, with about 200 going to the military as L-23/U-8 Seminoles.
Big and Innovative
The Twin Bo (affectionately nicknamed the “T-Bone”) was certainly not just a Bonanza with two engines. While it did have limited parts commonalities with the Model 35, the twin was massive in comparison. One entire wing of a Bonanza became the outer wing panel on a T-Bone. The BE- 35 flaps became the outer flaps of the T-Bone’s segmented 4-flap design. The fuselage sides, roof, door, windshields, and windows of a BE-35 became the BE-50’s upper-forward cabin (when widened by a foot). With the added wing cen- ter section and widened fuselage, the wingspan of the
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twin would grow to a dozen feet longer than that of the single-engine Bonanza. The Twin Bo’s original cabin con- figuration was two 3-abreast bench seats with a cargo area behind. The aft baggage door was large enough to slide a 50-gallon drum through, and the baggage area would hold two of them! Oddly, the co-pilot position was in the center because the T-Bone retained the BE-35’s throw-over yoke and rudder pedal position, putting the co-pilot controls on the centerline of the wider twin.
Innovative safety features were incorporated into the BE-50, as well. It was the first production aircraft certified with shoulder harnesses. Certification in the Utility Category gave it an airframe G-load limit of 4.4 Gs, translating into a 14% increase in maximum turbulence penetration speed. The design is very crash-worthy, too. Almost 70% of the airframe’s mass is forward of and below the occupants, and engine and fuel cells are outboard of the cabin. The bench seats were anchored to the forward and aft spars, respec- tively. When retracted, all tires remained slightly exposed. In a gear-up landing, the tires would still be the main point of contact, and differential braking remained available, too. In addition to the main entry door (over the wing or rear airstair), there were two large emergency egress windows.
Variations
The initial civilian model was simply the 50. As with pre- vious Beech designs, the Twin Bo’s designations would add