The winning team in the 1926 Ford Reliability Tour, Walter Beech (left) and navigator Brice Goldsborough, pose before their Travel Air Model BW with a J-4 radial engine. The airplane carried sate-of-the-art Pioneer navigation instruments, but Walter also attributed their success to following "the old reliable iron compass" - railroad tracks.
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Beech Family / Courtesy
Walter and Olive Ann Beech look out over the wartime production line that almost overflows with airplanes. The photograph apparently used mirrors to make the factory output look even more daunting to any Axis spy who might happen upon it.
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Beech Family / Courtesy
An informal portrait of the "First Lady of Aviation," Olive Ann
Beech (1903-1993), co-founder and President of the Beech Aircraft
Corporation, standing by an airplane propeller. Beech was born and
raised on a farm south of Waverly, Kansas. She attended business college
in Wichita, and worked for the Travel Air Manufacturing Company in
Wichita, before marrying Walter H. Beech on February 24, 1930. In 1932,
they co-founded the Beech Aircraft Corporation. After her husband's
death in 1950, Beech assumed the position of president of the
corporation, and was named its chairman emeritus after her retirement in
1982. She brought the company through fifty years of growth from the
Staggerwing Biplane to Skylab, and from ten employees to ten thousand.
Her other honors include: Woman of the Year (1951); Kansan of the Year
(1958); and nomination to the NASA Space Shuttle Study Committee (1971).
Date: Between 1950 and 1955
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Kansas State Historical Society / Courtesy Photos
Portrait of the "First Lady of Aviation," Olive Ann
Beech (1903-1993), co-founder and President of the Beech Aircraft
Corporation
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File
T-34 C trainers for the U.S. Navy. undated
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beech Aircraft plant in Wichita 1966
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File / Beech Aircraft
T34c trainers on the assembly line at Beechcraft. 1976
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beech's Liberal, Ks division. 1976
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beech Musketeers ready for delivery to Ohio State University. 1969.
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beech T-1A Jayhawk trainer. 1991
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File / Beech Aircraft
Bonanza Bonanza, over 500 Beech Bonanza's at Mid-Continent Airport , 1987.
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beechcraft BQM-126A Missile Target (undated)
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File / Beech Aircraft
Aerial view of Beechcraft facilities in Salina. 1966
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File / Beech Aircraft
Liberal, Ks plant production line of Beech Duchess models. 1978
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File / Beech Aircraft
Beech Aircraft sign at Beech headquarters in El Paso, Texas at Fort Bliss, 1966.
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File
Beech model C12A production line in Wichita in 1978
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Beech Super 18 cockpit, undated.
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File / Beech Aircraft
A photograph of a Beechcraft Bonanza Model 35 airplane in flight.
Aviation pioneers Walter H. and Olive Ann Beech founded the Beech
Aircraft Company in Wichita in 1932.
Date: 1947
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Kansas State Historical Society / Courtesy
Beech model 1025 target missile. 1961
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File / Beech Aircraft
Replica of the Walter Beech's Mystery S. Fiver were built in Wichita by Travel Air Co.
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File
Lynn Huggins joins other Hawker Beechcraft machinists as they hold a rally at the Pumphouse Friday. They are negotiating a new contract next week. (July 29, 2011)
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Fernando Salazar / The Wichita Eagle
Beech Sundowners bound for Indonesia are test flown in Liberal, Ks. 1975
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File / Beech Aircraft
Technicians at the Boulder, Colo., Beech Aircraft plant complete assembly of a liquid oxygen tank used in the Apollo program. 1972
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The fuselage of a th all composite bodied Premier 1 lies on its side along with other carbon fiber fuselage sections. The plane was Raytheon's first to be certified for flight. 2006
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Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle
Le Nguyen works on the chin fairing of a Raytheon Hawker 800XPi business jet in Wichita in 2006.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon pilot Dave Sitz dons his ejection seat harness before climbing into the cockpit of Raytheon's T-6B trainer Friday, July 7, 2006.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Avionics Technician Terry Soergel works of a T-6A JPATS trainer at Raytheon in 2001.
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Travis Heying / The Wichita Eagle
The Beech Raytheon JPATS trainer sits outside the new JPATS facility while people listen to speakers during the dedication ceremony at Raytheon in 1997.
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Brian Corn / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon pilot J.D. O'Malley checks the cockpit of Raytheon's new T-6B trainer in 2006.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Linda Frye delivers parts at the Raytheon Aircraft on her Segway transporter in 2003.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Jarrell Blair and Max Malcom work on the Beechcraft sign donated to the Augusta Air Museum in 1996. The sign was replaced at the Wichita plant with a Raytheon sign.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Jim Schuster stands below the new company logo that was unveiled as the sale of the Raytheon-held company was finalized in 2007.
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Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle
Brett Porter works on one of the JPATS planes on the assembly line at Raytheon Aircrat Company in 2002.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon workers do some final work on a Beech 1900 on the production line in 2000.
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Brian Corn / The Wichita Eagle
Sharon Emerson installs a mud guard in the nose of a Raytheon Hawker 800XPi business jet in 2006.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Kevin Hilton checks the electrical systems on an engine of a Raytheon King Air turboprop at the Raytheon aircraft plant in Wichita in 2005.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Edddie Mendia, avionics technician at Raytheon, installs a wire harness near the engine of a Beech 1900 on the production line in 2000.
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Brian Corn / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon Aviation's Trevor Beyeler describes the construction of aircraft to girls participating in the K-State Exploring Science and Technology program. 2006
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Dave Williams / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon Aircraft Company's CEO Hansel Tookes poses for a group of photographers with Duer Wagner Jr. after it was announced that Wagner will be the first owner of the Hawker 450. Wagner is the owner of the Duer Wagner, Jr. Interests, a Fort Worth based group of companies. 2000
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Workers at Raytheon's Wichita plant work on final assembly of a King Air a twin prop plane. 2006
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A sign hanging in a press conference announcing layoffs show the new structure of the Beechcraft Company. 1994
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon pilots Dave Sitz, front, and J.D. O'Malley take off from Wichita in Raytheon's new T-6B trainer in 2006.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon's Premier 1 on the assembly line at Raytheon's Wichita plant. The all composite bodied plane was Raytheon's first to be certified for flight. 2006
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Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle
Used Hawker 800XP and Beechcraft Premiers at the Hawker Beechcraft Mid-Continent Airport facility.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Some workers showed their displeasure at the contract in unusual ways, like Tony Brewster, who works on the King Air Final Line. Brewster brought this toilet seat to the vote, but he wasn't allowed to take it into the meeting. "They're not giving us anything," he said. "Everything's take away. At the end of the year, I'll be losing money over what I make today." 2005
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Tawnya Ludiker christens the Hawker Horizon during the unveiling at Raytheon in 2001. Ludiker was the business manager in the Hawker Horizon Business Unit.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Max Manz with Bauer and Son Construction puts the finishing touch on a new banner at the entrance of Hawker Beechcraft in 2007.
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Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle
Debbie Arebal works on a wire harness on the business jet line in Plant Four at Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita in 2009.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
John Immenschuh, foreground, checks the avionics of a Raytheon King Air turboprop at the Raytheon aircraft plant in Wichita in 2005.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon aircraft CEO and chairman Hansel Tookes introduced the Hawker Horizon during a ceremony in 2001.
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File / The Wichita Eagle
Raytheon's Premier 1 on the assembly line at Raytheon's Wichita plant. The all composite bodied plane was Raytheon's first to be certified for flight. 2006
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Bo Rader / The Wichita Eagle
Mechanic Kelly Daetwiler installs nose avionics in a Raytheon Hawker 400XP business jet in Wichita in 2006.
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Mike Hutmacher / The Wichita Eagle
Sharon Ray attends a Hawker Beechcraft machinists rally at the Pumphouse in July, 2011.
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Fernando Salazar / The Wichita Eagle
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