InFilms & Design Presents - Twin Beech 18 Featuring Steve Wood

[Music] [Applause] [Music] the beach aircraft corporation was founded in 1932 by Walter H and olive and Beach the first Beechcraft produced was the model 17 the classic Beechcraft Staggerwing designed especially for the business traveler the airplane proves to be faster than military pursuit airplanes of the day and wins numerous Air Races in 1937 beech introduces the model 18 twin beach the beach eighteen prototype first flew on January 15 1937 this airplane is to business with the dc-3 is to the airplane produced until 1970 the model 18 spent 33 years in continuous production Steve wood twin Beach eighteen owner well it's been an important aviation has been an important part of my life I was sort of born into it my my dad was one of four sons and his family they were all pilots their dad my paternal grandfather learned to fly in the Signal Corps in 1918 so I can't remember not being not being around people that were talking about aviation and airplanes this particular airplane was built after the war spilled in August of 48 it was always a corporate airplane never was a freighter never was a dope smuggler never was a car parts hauler a lot of these speech 18s you know during the the 60s and 70s they used them as freighters they were cheap to own and when gas was cheap fairly inexpensive to operate at the time I learned to fly in in the early 70s if you were headed toward a commercial pilot's career one of the first gigs a lot of those guys got was flying Freight it'd be changing so this airplane started off life up in Oregon and it stayed pretty much along the west coast it was owned by three or four different corporations as a you know just a corporate traveling airplane I think predominantly that's what they were mostly known for and used for in their civilian life before there were busy jets you know before the Learjet or it's a Cessna Citation or anything the beech 18 the airplane air travel they were selling a bit of a luxury experience I think that was that was always what beach was known for Cessna was kind of cranking out for the common man and Beach was like you know now we're gonna charge a little bit more but we're gonna you know we're gonna throw in a few extras and concentrate on creature comfort fair amount there were there were a couple competitors the Lockheed Electra like Amelia got lost in but the Lockheed was never made in very many numbers the beach they made love and 12,000 of the things mostly for the war effort you can find photos on the Internet of the Beach factory during World War two where literally these things have just lined up in unbelievable numbers and people working around the clock building you know for the war effort so the surf plane has oh I think about 5500 flight hours on it which is minimal in the beach eighteen world and I was looking for a low time airframe I mean it looks like an aluminum airplane and it and the outboard wings are all aluminum but the guts of the airplane the landing gear the main carry through spar is this big massive steel tube weldment that's heat treated no one's making any more of those so if you want to if you have a good spar truss you have a good beach eighteen or at least the project if the spar truss is gone well then forget it it is a great traveling airplane this one's set up with four and a fifth jump seat in the back so if you have say four adults in there and you're going somewhere everyone has Roomba stretch way out the cabins relatively quiet it's just kind of a boom boom boom boom boom you know sounds like sounds like Harley's going down the road you know not at idle but not wide open because the engines are only turned in about 1800 rpm so it just says a low Rumble it's a very comfortable airplane to travel in people look at it and they think well sand cruise is about 120 miles an hour no crus is about 200 miles and it's a very clean airplane when the landing gear is all retracted it's the only Beach 18 that I've flown but I know from talking to other owners and and from some people who have flown with me this is a fast one because they all came with icing equipment you know they had boots on the leading edges of the of the wing of the horizontal tail they had alcohol slingers on the propellers windshield wipers a lot of junk that causes drag this airplanes had all that stuff removed it doesn't even have a rain gutter over the door anymore and they used to have a big ol ADF antenna it looked like a football you know they all had it right in the middle of the bat all that stuff's gone off this airplane and because it's never been wrecked or tweaked it flies with all its trim taps right in the middle so you know when you get the gear sucked up it gets right down the road you know when you own an airplane like a beach 18 yeah you own it it's an asset but you're sort of at this point in time you're sort of a caretaker of a piece of history and you kind of have to embrace that as part of that's part of the fact that you own the airplane the beach model eighteen or twin beach is both beautiful to look at on the ground and in the air with proper care and handling the model eighteen or twin beach will continue to fly and bring enjoyment to everyone that appreciates a truly unique one-of-a-kind [Music] you [Music]

Channel: InFilms & Design

Views: 5,802

Rating: 4.875 out of 5

Keywords: Twin Beech, Beechcraft model 18, twin beech 18, aircraft, steve wood, infilms and design, Larry Seibert, scot stewart, grand junction, airplane, history, beechcraft history, walter h. beech, olive ann beech, beechcraft staggerwing, flying, grand junction colorado, vintage aircraft, twin engine aircraft

Id: 8re-oM9LVz8

Length: 7min 47sec (467 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 17 2019