And though the A36 model came to an end in 2005, its legacy lives on with the G36. First built in 1970, 2,128 A36 models have been delivered and are still in service. But out of the many models, the Beechcraft A36 Bonanza reigns supreme. During the ongoing 68 year run, they have built more than 17,000 Bonanzas between all the many models and variants. Since 1947, Bonanzas have been in continual production, and this line of aircraft hold the record for the longest production run of any aircraft in history. A couple of other factors contributed to the crash: Peterson did not hold an instrument rating and was not aware of the adverse weather conditions until shortly before taking off. The generally accepted theory is that the 21-year-old Peterson couldn’t accurately read the plane’s Sperry F3 attitude indicator, and thought the plane was ascending when it was actually descending. In a follow-up investigation, the crash was attributed to pilot error. Shortly after takeoff, they crashed into a cornfield, killing all four men on board. On the February 3rd, 1959 1, at about 1 in morning, rock stars Holly, Richie Valens, JP “the Big Bopper” Richardson and pilot Roger Peterson took off from Mason City Airport in Iowa in a light snow. So he quit, founded a new company, and set up shop in an idle Cessna factory.įifteen years later in 1947, they shipped the first airplane from the Beechcraft Bonanza line, a Model 35.Īs a tragic side note, it was an original 1947 Model 35 Bonanza that was involved in the famous plane crash that claimed the life of musician Buddy Holly. Beech had previously founded Travel Air in 1924, but after they were bought by Curtiss-Wright in 1929 and Beech was moved to a position as VP of Sales, he longed for a return to airplane production.
The Beech Aircraft company was founded in 1932 in Wichita, Kansas, by Walter Beech and his wife Olive. The Beechcraft A36 Bonanza: Reliability, Comfort, and Performance