Beechcraft
aircraft manufacturer in the United States
Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. 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 then Hawker Beechcraft before a bankruptcy sale turned its assets over to Textron (parent company of Beech's historical cross-town Wichita rival, Cessna Aircraft Company). It remains a brand of Textron Aviation.
History
Beech Aircraft Company was founded in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932 by 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 investor C. G. Yankey as vice president. The company began operations in an idle Cessna factory. With designer Ted Wells, they developed the first aircraft under the Beechcraft name, the Beechcraft Model 17 Staggerwing, which flew in November 1932. Over 750 Staggerwings were built, including 352 for the United States Army Air Forces and 67 for the United States Navy during World War II.
Beechcraft was not Beech's first company, as he had previously helped form Travel Air in 1924 and the design sequence used at Beechcraft followed Travel Air's, which were continued at Curtiss-Wright, after Travel Air had been absorbed in 1929. Beech had become president of Curtiss-Wright's airplane division and VP of sales, but was dissatisfied with being distanced from aircraft production. He quit to form Beechcraft, using the original Travel Air facilities and employing many of the same people.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Beechcraft” as aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as aircraft manufacturer in the United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q634227. VIAF identifies the subject as 130206207. The Library of Congress control number is n82060265. 2 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2014, 1932, 1924 and 1929.
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This entry incorporates text from “Beechcraft” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.