Last One, The

Air Classics, Jun 2005 by O'Leary, Michael

Steven Craig's Beechcraft G17S

The Beech Staggerwing is one of aviation's truly classic aircraft and it is a bit amazing that its ancestry goes all the way back to the early 1930s. Walter Beech was thinking about a new aircraft that would have a top speed of 200-mph and be able to carry four to five people in comfort. He also wanted the plane to have long range and be easy to maintain. The company had gained experience with the Travel Air Model R race plane, so highspeed flight was not a mystery. Designer Ted Wells went over what Beech wanted and created an unusual appearing biplane with negative stagger wings. This layout gave good visibility as well as excellent stall and recovery characteristics. At the time, Beech was working for CurtissWright and once the project was presented to the board of directors it failed to draw any interest.

When Walter Beech set up his own company in 1932, he completed the design and it became the Model 17 the first production Beechcraft. The prototype aircraft was powered by a Wright R-975 Whirlwind of 420-hp and the fuselage was constructed of steel tubing with wood and metal formers and wooden stringers. The wings were constructed of wood and connected with I struts. The aircraft made its first flight on 4 November 1932 and it is interesting to note that this plane, and the first few Staggerwings, had fixed landing gear. The aircraft was soon meeting its performance goals and Walter Beech began incorporating improvements that increased performance.

The addition of retractable landing gear, better streamlining, and more powerful engines made the Staggerwing one of the top performers and the type went on to set outstanding records in commercial, racing, and military operations. The Staggerwing was built in a variety of different "flavors" that could, and have, fill a book but we are concerned with just one particular Staggerwing - the last one built.

Readers of Air Classics are familiar with Steven Craig via his rare Grumman F4F-3 Wildcat (see Air Classics V39/N4) and Bucker Jungmeister, which was the first one built (see V38/N2). Steve likes finding aircraft with historic significance and his acquisition of the G17S came about in a most interesting manner. "I have always liked the Staggerwing," said Steve. "I have been a member of the Staggerwing Club since 1982 and had a project for restoration, but I sold it. In 1991, I found the last G17S for sale in Florida. The G17S came along in 1946 and was a greatly improved version with a new engine cowling, redesigned windshield, new exhaust system, new instrument panel, larger control surfaces on the tail, and many other refinements. There was one problem - the G17S was selling for $29,000, hut Beech was just starting to build the Bonanza and you could get one of those for a bit over $7000."

Production of the G17S would total just 20 aircraft - 16 of those were built by Beech while the remaining four were assembled from components from Henry Seal Aviation Supply in Dallas. The last Staggerwing, c/n 20 N80321, was rolled out on 17 June 1949 - ending a pioneering period in American aviation. Walter Beech kept c/n 20 and used it as a company aircraft for a while before selling the plane to Willis Hartman, an independent oil and gas producer in Kansas. Hartman hired Ivan Behel as a pilot and they flew all around the country in the plane.

The aircraft went through a number of owners by the time Steve found it in Florida. "It was pretty tired," said Steve. "It had never been restored and had 1250-hrs on the engine. It had last been recovered in 1970, but on the plus side it had never been damaged. All the logs were with the aircraft from day one. I made the mistake of doing a handshake deal with the owner and giving him a $10,000 deposit." From that point, the situation turned into a bit of a nightmare. The owner decided he did not want to sell the plane, but kept the deposit! Steve and the owner haggled back and forth and finally Steve obtained the craft in 1994, but never got all his deposit back. The sale was predicated on the aircraft receiving an annual. The owner had his mechanic do the annual "it was pretty much a 'Parker Pen' annual," said Steve. When he inspected the aircraft, Steve found that all the rubber hoses crumbled at his touch. Also, many other items were obviously not airworthy.

After considerable negotiations, well-known aircraft restorer Tom Crevasse was brought in as an arbitrator. After inspecting the craft, Tom had a solid three pages of squawks. Tom worked on the plane to get it in ferriable shape and then flew it (gear down) to his facility in New Smyrna Beach, Florida, where he proceeded to finish the annual inspection - at a cost of $35,000. This, of course, resulted in legal action which Steve won.

"After all that excitement, I flew it for about a year adding just 18-20-hrs flying time," recalled Steve. "I was starting to worry about the engine and prop. I reasoned that I could just do a few things, clean the plane up and keep flying. However, in the back of my mind I knew what I had to do. Tom had done a lot of wood repair in the aileron and flap bays so there were patches of silver dope on the fabric and it was not really looking so good.