#BEECH SKIPPER OPERATING MANUAL HOW TO#
#BEECH SKIPPER OPERATING MANUAL SERIES#

The name had been chosen after a contest involving hundreds of Beechcraft franchise employees.

A year later at the 1976 sales extravaganza, company officials introduced the former PD 289 as the Model 76 Duchess. An early proof-of-concept prototype had begun flight testing in September 1974 that continued into 1975, providing Beech engineers with a wealth of flight-test data about the designвЂ™s aerodynamics, performance with one-engine inoperative, airframe and engine systems and overall flight characteristics. The PD 289 would be powered by two Avco Lycoming, four-cylinder piston engines, each rated at 180 horsepower and fitted with counter-rotating propellers.

(Wichita State University Libraries, Special Collections and University Archives) The Duchess was built from 1978-1982 at the Liberal, Kansas, factory. The Beechcraft Model 76 Duchess was introduced in 1978 as a multi-engine trainer for Beech Aero Centers and as a competitor to the similar Piper Seminole and Grumman American Cougar. As with their older brethren, the new airplanes would augment the lineup of Beechcraft products at the companyвЂ™s popular Beech Aero Centers, but would also compete with the new Piper PA-44 Seminole, Cessna Model 303 and the Grumman American GA-7 Cougar вЂ“ all aimed at the same lightweight, multi-engine trainer market as the Model 76.

#BEECH SKIPPER OPERATING MANUAL SERIES#

1Д«oth Beechcrafts were intended to fill gaps in the companyвЂ™s entry-level product line that had been occupied since 1963 by the successful Model 23 Musketeer/Sundowner and Model 24 Sierra series airplanes.

#BEECH SKIPPER OPERATING MANUAL HOW TO#

The first to be unveiled was the PD 289, a preliminary design aimed at the four-place, lightweight twin-engine segment of the market, and PD 285, a single-engine, two-place airplane aimed at training fledgling student pilots how to fly. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beechcraft Skipper.Beech Aircraft CorporationвЂ™s Model 76 вЂњDuchessвЂќ and the Model 77 вЂњSkipperвЂќ were welcome additions to the companyвЂ™s product line, but the economic recession of 1981 clipped their wingsДuring the three-day Beechcraft International Sales Roundup held in November 1975, two proposed aircraft were revealed to more than 800 Masters of Aircraft Salesmanship attending the event.

Federal Aviation Administration, Rev 8.pdf Type certificate data sheet no.

Air Enthusiast, December 1975, Vol 9 No 6.

^ 'Beech Plans to Close Plant at Liberal, Kan'.

^ a b c d Phillips, Edward H., Beechcraft - Staggerwing to Starship.

^ a b c d e f g h Green, William: Observers Aircraft, pages 40-41.

and Gerald Foster: A Field Guide to Airplanes, Second Edition, page 26. The landing gear is mounted to the fuselage/wing junction, but has a 5.17В ft (2В m) wide wheelbase, giving it a 'spraddle-legged' appearance on the ground. The flaps and ailerons are actuated by torque tubes, rather than cables. While it is an all-metal design, the Skipper incorporated a number of innovative construction techniques, including tubular spars and aluminum honeycomb construction with metal-to-metal bonding, a technique inherited from the Musketeer family. The aircraft was certified for intentional spins. The Skipper wing utilizes a GA(W)-1 airfoil, specifically developed for low-speed aviation applications, based on 1970s NASA research.

Production was handled at the Liberal (Kansas) Division, where the Beechcraft Duchess and Musketeer were produced. Like the Cessna and Piper trainers which were its primary competition, the Skipper utilizes the Lycoming O-235 engine and features side-by-side configuration seating. Though the aircraft first flew with a standard tail configuration, by the time it entered production, a T-tail configuration had been adopted, giving it an appearance very similar to its close competitor, the Piper PA-38 Tomahawk introduced in 1978. The Skipper was Beechcraft's attempt to enter the two-place trainer market with an aircraft capable of competing with the popular Cessna 150 line of trainer aircraft. Дesign work on the Skipper began in 1974 as the PD 285, which made its maiden flight on February 6, 1975. The Skipper was conceived with the design goals of creating a low cost primary trainer with an emphasis on ease of maintenance and low operating costs.

Beech skipper operating manual