THE BONANZA TURNS SENIOR CITIZEN
Sixty years ago the distinctive “Bonanza” began rolling off the production line at Beechcraft in Wichita, Kansas. It stood out from similar aircraft because of its innovative “V” or “Butterfly” tail. In modified form it is still in production today and nearly 18,000 have been built. A record production run if there ever was one.
We all know what was supposed to happen – thousands of former military pilots desired nothing more than to continue flying after the Second World War. There would be a private aircraft in every driveway. It did not turn out that way, but Walter Beech and lead designer Ralph Harmon did not know this in 1945-46.
The Bonanza was one of the first state-of-the-art all-metal recreational and business monoplanes on the post-war market. Buyers quickly learned to appreciate its handling qualities, top speed of 150 knots (180 mph), cabin comfort and retractable landing gear, not to mention the racy looks of the butterfly V-tail and the price of just under $8,000. (More than $90,000 in today’s dollars.) The current stretched G36 model is priced at nearly $670,000 and Beech sells about 70 a year.
The Bonanza first flew on December 22, 1945 and was put into production in March 1947. Besides Harmon, the designers included Wilson Erhart, Jerry Gordon, Noel Naidenoff and Alex Odevseff. The first two and the fifth prototypes were used for static fatigue testing. Number three was flown with a laminar wing and a Lycoming GO-290A engine and number four was the production prototype, powered by a 165 hp Continental E-165. It could fly 175 miles on 40 U.S. gallons of fuel. Five hundred Bonanza’s were sold even before production started and 1,196 were built in 1947 alone. In July 1962, the 7,000th aircraft was delivered and number 10,000, a V35B, went out the door in February 1977, to be flown on a tour of the nation.
Using the fourth production aircraft, “Waikiki Beech,” William Odom set a new long-distance record for light aircraft by flying 2,407.383 miles from Honolulu to Oakland on January 13, 1949 in 22 hours and six minutes. He actually flew more than 2,900 miles because his goal was to fly to the East Coast, but bad weather over Nevada forced him back. But on March 7 and 8 he flew nonstop from Hickam Field in Hawaii to Teterboro, NJ in 36 hours and two minutes. The “Waikiki Beech” was fitted with wingtip tanks for both flights. It is now at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
More than 1,500 aircraft were built before the Model A35 of 1949. The latter had a redesigned wing with a box-shape, carry-through metal spar instead of the tubular spar of the Model 35. This allowed it to be licensed in the Utility category with a full gross weight of 2,650 lbs. A steerable nosewheel replaced the freely swiveling wheel that required differential braking for ground maneuvering. The A35 had a higher useful load, a strengthened undercarriage that could withstand a speed of 125 mph when extended and the flap-extended speed was upped to 105 mph. Beech built 701 A35s, all in 1949. The B35 of 1950 had a 196 hp Continental E-185, some cabin improvements and a flap extension of 30 degrees from 20. As Beech kept churning out Bonanzas, it kept improving the basic design. When the F35 was introduced in 1955, total production stood at 4,000. The F35 had a third cabin side window. It also had a heavier gauge aluminum skin on the wing leading edges and a reinforced spar cap on the V-tail.
The six-seat S35 of 1964 had a 19 inch fuselage plug and can seat six. But not all was well. The V-tail became associated with a number of flying accidents, many of them fatal. On an early test flight in 1945, the tail surfaces broke away in a high-speed dive and test pilot Vern Carstens was killed. Beech strengthened the tail and more than 1,500 hours of test flights followed without incidents. But once in the hands of buyers, more tail separations took place. Beech concluded they were not the result of structural design fault, but primarily of high stress loads imposed by flying into extreme turbulence, often combined with pilot inexperience. The FAA issued two Airworthiness Directives for the tail. The first called for detailed repairs on the Model 35, A35 and B35, all built before 1950. The second AD involved a one-time inspection of the entire tail structure, a correct balancing of the control surfaces and the installation of a cuff to secure the leading edges of the tail surfaces to the fuselage.
On February 3, 1959, a 1947-model Bonanza, N3974N “Miss American Pie,” took off from Mason City, Iowa for Fargo, ND to take Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardon (“The Big Bopper”) to their next show. Piloted by Roger Peterson of Dwyer Flying Service, they took off at 1 a.m. in light snow. After about five miles, the aircraft impacted the ground and disintegrated, killing all on board. The CAB report on the crash concluded the pilot was not certified to fly on instruments in the prevailing weather conditions.
Holly is remembered today in the classic song “American Pie,” written by Don McLean in which he describes his feelings after Holly’s death. In 1959 Beech introduced the four-seat Model 33 Debonair. This was basically a simplified Bonanza with a conventional tail structure including a swept-back fin and rudder. The first flight took place on September 14. In 1968 the E33 Debonair was renamed the E33 Bonanza and both the V-tail 35 and straight tail 33 were produced in parallel as the Bonanza. The V-tail model was dropped in 1982 after more than 15,500 had been built, including 1,328 of the final V35B and seven V-35B-TC with a 285 hp turbocharged Teledyne TSIO-520-D engine. More than 6,000 classic V-tail Bonanzas are still flying.
The current six-seat Model 36 Bonanza, introduced in June 1968, has little more than the name in common with its earliest ancestor. It is a six-seater based on the V35A. Power is provided by a 285 hp Continental IO-520-B Two outward-opening cabin doors on starboard provide easy access and the wing was moved back to maintain the centre of gravity range in the utility role.
Bonanzas with conventional tail also serve as trainers with a number of military forces around the world. The USAF bought several QU-22 based on the B36T Turbo Bonanza. Carrying ‘Pave Eagle’ electronics equipment, they were deployed in Vietnam to pick up and relay electronic data about enemy troop movements in the dense jungle. The data was acquired from acoustic sensors air-dropped along known or suspected transit routes. Many attempts have been made to improve the performance of existing Bonanzas. Most involved installing different engines, other propellers or fine-tuning the aerodynamics. Some V-tail models were modified with a conventional tail. In 1956 David Peterson of Tulsa, Oklahoma, converted a V-tail Bonanza to have two 180 hp Lycoming O-360-A1Ds. It had a strengthened fuselage and wing and was certificated by the FAA on June 17, 1960. A conversion program began at Oakland Airmotive Company of San Francisco, as the Bay Super-V. To help sales, Pan American World Airways pilot Chuck Banfe flew one on a 21,000 mile trip around the world in October 1960 in 212 hours. But the venture floundered and the program was moved to Fleet Aircraft in Fort Erie, Ontario, Canada. Fleet revamped the “around-the-world” aircraft and after converting only five V-tail Bonanzas the program was sold to Mitchell Trimotor Aircraft Corp. of Savannah, Georgia. Mitchell converted another seven and rebuilt two others before the program ended. Another offspring of the original Bonanza is the T-34 Mentor. But that one deserves its own story.
By Joop Gerritsma