The Beechcraft Model 17 “Staggerwing” cuts an unusually sleek profile through aviation history. Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Model 17, widely regarded as one of the world’s most enviable private airplanes.
Walter Beech was born in 1891 in Pulaski, Tennessee, and flew in the U.S. Army during World War I. After the war, he joined Swallow Airplane Co. as a test pilot. In 1924, Beech joined fellow airplane designers Lloyd Stearman and Clyde Cessna—both of whom later gave their names to famous aircraft—to form the Travel Air Manufacturing Co. in Wichita, Kansas. The small company hired a 21-year-old office manager and bookkeeper named Olive Ann Mellor. She proved to have an extremely good head for business. Walter and Olive Ann began a low-key romance and were eventually married in 1930.
