Walking into the softly lit hangar for dinner this night was to enter a pilot’s dream house. In one corner was a 1932 Staggerwing 17R serial number one, the very first Beechcraft manufactured, standing proudly in her elegant wheel fairings; in another was a 1938 S18D Twin Beech serial number 178, the 11th Model 18 built, colorful in her original Prairie Airways livery; and diagonally across the room was Miss Shiny, a 1947 Model 35 Bonanza serial number 18 all polished aluminum and red bird trim. These immaculate craft glistened in their spotlights, each a work of art, filling the room with a visceral vitality even though the youngest of the trio is 61 years old. There have been many successful Beechcraft designs, but these three, the Models 17, 18 and 35, are the holy trinity of the revered Beech Aircraft Company founded in 1932 by Walter Beech and his wife, Olive Ann, and known today as Hawker Beechcraft. This evening’s dinner, around dozens of tables with glowing blue ice-like centerpieces, was part of a five-day celebration last October to honor the 35th anniversary of the Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma, Tennessee. Dining together were some 325 friends, or soon to be friends, with a common passion: Beechcraft airplanes. A stranger could have plunked down at any table and have a new circle of friends in 10 minutes. They might include a gifted mechanic specializing in Beech 18s, a Staggerwing owner fully aware that he is merely the temporary custodian of an historic aircraft, a Bonanza pilot who flew his ship around the world, or possibly the person who donated the building, but the newcomer would only see their common bond that brought them to this place at this time in the presence of these magnificent aircraft. They are family.
What is now a first-class museum housing artifacts, documents and aircraft found nowhere else in the world grew from a modest idea. Yet, despite its spectacular growth, it still has the atmosphere of a family home carefully expanded over the years as the family grew.
