Beechcraft Staggerwing - Review, Specs and History of Timeless Classic! 

I exist because of this plane. In 1933, Beech Aircraft hired a homeless man to help fill the orders for Staggerwings. This man was then able to marry his sweetheart. They had a son in 1937. That child was my father.

Absolutely one of the most beautiful aircraft to ever fly!

My neighbor has a 17D. He often flys around on nice days. That is one of the most beautiful aircraft I have ever seen and heard. Can’t beat the sound of the radials.

It is my opinion that this is by far the most beautiful aircraft ever designed and flown.

Sometime during my elementary school years, I was invited over to a new friends house out in the country. His father had a beautiful yellow airplane. Long afterward, I learned it was a Staggerwing. I have been in love with them ever since. (I am now 71)

I got to fly in a Staggerwing Beach in the 1980’s. One of my Dad’s friends from Alaska owned it, and trusted his flight instructor with it, my Dad. We had an amazing time flying over Western Washington with it from Seattle to Mt. Rainier to Mt. St. Hellens and back.

I got a ride in one of those when I was about 8 years old. I just about wet my pants I was so happy with the sound and feeling that the plane gave to the occupants. I'm sure the experience of flying in one of them hasn't diminished at all since then. Timeless

The antique Staggerwing is one sweet bird to fly! It and the Spartan Executive are the most under-rated Civil aircraft even built. You have work hard to run either of them into the ground. Get 'em "messed-up" in the air-just take your hands and feet off the controls and they'll right themselves if you have any altitude.

I am 91 loved the Beech Still Do

so beautiful ... Incredible how much it is so beautiful...

My Flight instructor, John Krueger of Redlands Airport/City of Redlands, Has the oldest flying Beech Staggerwing. It was the first Staggerwing produced and was originally owned first by Beech, and then sold a couple of years later. After being in a wreck just recently he is now in the process of replacing all of the cloth, he has rebuilt/replaced everything else so when he is finished it will have had a complete rebuild.

My flight instructor rebuilt a D17 Staggerwing back in the 60's. A very cool airplane. Never saw it completed, but did help him doing a run test on the Jacobs radial engine.

Wonderful history video. Thanks for your work. Much enjoyed!

Saw a couple of these at an airshow last year. Beautiful planes, also sound fantastic.

Worked at Glendale, AZ airport in 1976. A genleman had a Beech Staggerwing that he rebuilt from the ground up. As part of its maiden flight after the restoration he made a high speed low pass down the runway. Very impressive. And the sound it made..........

Such a beautiful, classic and timeless airplane the Beech 17 is. It first flew in 1932, and I can only imagine what the people of the day thought of it. Just imagine being able to buy a new Staggerwing today for only $250,000. The 17 looked like it was doing 150 kts. while sitting on the tarmac.

Stag wings are just beautiful .

Love the stagger wing Beach, beautiful plane.😊

It is very beautiful.

I worked at the Calgary airport as a helicopter mechanic in 1973 and the company shared a hangar with several aircraft, one of which was a impeccable bright yellow Staggerwing, with wine coloured leather interior. such a dominating aircraft design, all those 182's and 310's paled in significance to that beauty

"Staggerwing and Me" was an article written by an English Professor out of NM that ferried planes as a side job. It's one of the best written articles in an age (the seventies) when Playboy published some incredible work.

Go to the museum in Tullahoma Tennessee. Great book on the Staggerwing written by RT Smith, one of the founders of the museum and multiple 19 owner.

I got mine as a barnfind a little over 20 years ago for 17K. I wish I was into RU-vid then because the restoration would have been worth recording. Needless to say, the restoration cost significantly more than the buying cost 😂

Absolutely stunning aircraft up there with the connie

This was a fun and excellent review of a gorgeous aircraft. Thanks for sharing

Brings back 45+ old memories, I knew two people who owned them. One was a super nice guy that would visit once in a while, he even had a matching colored automobile and a girlfriend that looked very similar to Jessica Rabbit. I looked at the one without wing supports up close at dawn in Oshkosh back in the '90s, now that was awesome. Personally, I'd be more than happy with a 180, at least I wouldn't be flopping around and crying if I wrecked it.

500K for this beauty, and 400K for a new C 172 Not too hard to choose.

There was a D17 at the Des Moines, IA airport in the early 70's where I took most of my flight training. Beautiful airplane.

What a wonderful old plane and one that I am not familiar with. I know more about British aircraft from that period. Thank you for sharing.

Monoplanes were actually superior even then, but most people didn't' think so, and the clients were not engineers. Still it's a great looking aircraft.

You missed the boat on the main attraction of the staggerwing, its fuselage and wings were a work of art.

In the early 40's my dad went to MIT. His roommate had a beautiful sports car and a Beech Craft V Tail airplane. My dad was a member of the MIT glider club.

just beautiful

One of my all time favorites!

It’s nice to see an innovative design.

I enjoyed the video of the Beechcraft Staggerwing but I'd like to see the interior of this plane too whenever possible. It puts me in mind of the Dehavilland Beaver with it's radial engine but I'm not familiar with the Beech at all. The Staggerwing is very impressive but I got confused with which is which the negative and the other style and which is best. Thank you very much for all you do to prepare these videos to upload for all of us to share. Happy Landings.

My Dad had a J3 and a Stinson 10A, Tied next to them was a Stagger Wing. Tried as I Could I could NEVER wrangle a ride out of the owner,the biggest regret of my life,What a beautiful Airplane!

Absolutely beautiful!

I know too much after fully restoring a crashed bellied in 43' Staggerwing, but I wasn't prepared two yrs later, for the intense 2.5G barrel roll indicated on the panel. No worries, no one heard me screaming over the maxed out 450Hp radial. It was a huge restoration making all new landing gear doors, to full panel mod to use modern radios, where it's required to extend the firewall for new style radios to fit. The final touch was full repaint to original layout. If other tech's recognize this rebuild, where it happened in St.Paul Mn mid eighties, Cheers

Five of these staggerwing are in Wanaka New Zealand getting rebuilt

Just plain beautiful 😊

This is a truly beautiful design for a civilian aircraft. Thanks so much for posting. 😊

Walter Beech was saved by a mysterious airport hacked out of the Canadian forest while flying a Staggerwing. I picked up this story while working in the public relations department of Beech Aircraft in Wichita, KS, back in the 60's. Walter and his production test pilot were flying back to Kansas in a new Staggerwing after attending an air show in Canada. This was in the late 30's or so. The big problem was that they were running low an fuel. Ahead and behind lay miles forest. They flew on and after awhile their lack of fuel grew critical. It was about then that they spotted a runway cut out of the trees below. Walter landed, and there they sat on a wilderness landing strip. A few minutes later, a man driving a tractor and pulling a cart with a 50 gallon gas drum appeared. Walter and his test pilot were grateful, but astounded. Walter asked the man how this field came to be. The man told them the story of how his son -- a fighter pilot in WWI -- was shot down over a forest in Europe. No runway in sight. Suddenly he came across a runway carved out of the trees below. It saved the son's life. Hearing this story from his son made the man decide to do the same thing where he lived in Canada.

Waco makes a beautiful biplane

I always thought that the Beech 17 is one of most Beautiful planes ever built it's up there with the Lockheed Constellation, classy!

The staggering is the most beautiful civil aviation aircraft of the 30s and 40s.

Thank you for your nice video and storytelling 🙏🏼

Ithink they were one of the most fantastic planes ever built

Great video. Thanks

Thank you for a very informative video on the Beechcraft Staggerwing. Please consider foing a video on the Beechcraft Model 18. This plane was in production at Beechcraft for more than thirty years.

I saw a few over the years a beautiful airplane

Pretty Aircraft . you can see where the Pitt Specials came from too .

$250, 000 Seems doable to me. In todays money . For such a beautiful aircraft

My Grand pa had a V tail, it was a beautiful plane

My god that's a beautiful plane 😮

Classy 👌

A Staggerwing dropped into Waukesha, WI where I was taking flight instruction. I got to walk right up to it and even see inside. Most impressive bird I have seen before or since. Excluding the DC-3. 😁😁

A Staggerwing makes an appearance in the movie “Wild River” with Montgomery Clift.

The Duesenberg of the sky.

Good Video. I Bet It's Already Sold!

Gorgeous plane with macho sound. BTW, Waco is pronounced "Wah-co." Wayco is the city of Waco, TX.

Great airplane...👍

Witnessed one ground looping at ENE long ago. Squirrely landing but everything came out fine.

Picked up a D17 in Ohio 1978. Drove back thru Tullahoma to see what was happening, probably to show off and got a ride in another there. Got it home to San Antonio. New- zero time R985, it was beautiful but after looking at it closely, realized that all wings were red tagged. Tried to talk major investor into keeping her but he backed out. 50,000 was what he had in it and wouldn’t be budged. Nearly cried as we were set up to rebuild it all. Sad, sad.

Just to clear up a small inaccuracy in the introductory remarks, the first production Learjet was delivered in October 1964 according the Wikipedia article on Learjet. A wealthy person or business could not have flown one in the 1950’s.

Thank you! One minor point: it is ‘ whopping,’ not ‘whooping,’ as you used. 😉

Now I want one….

WACO Aircraft pronounced "Wah Co" Waco "Wayco" is in Texas

The Griffon Lionheart was a updated version.

Yes.

Functional art.

what plane is that at 6:49?

no sound?

When are you making videos of bombardier planes?

👍

Has anyone converted one of these to turboprop? I know there are limitations due to the biplane, as far as never exceed speed.

Why dont they make a modern remake of this plane?

Channel called "Big Metal Birds", video on the Staggerwing. 😏

Are there any independent/small aircraft companies that make a replica Beechcraft Staggerwing?

I helped restore two

I would take one of those over a Lear jet any day

WACO rhymes with taco. Waco is a town in Texas.

It's not a Gulfstream, but still, it's beautiful.

Any LionHearts around?

The original Q-ship.

They're $400k. Yep, out of my price range. Pretty plane though.

I'd put the M17 #2 behind the Spartan Executive. The M17 rear taper from rear of cabin to the elevators and rudder is not asymmetric to the rest of the plane. Along with the rudder design, is actually kind of ugly. The M17 only shines head on. Your mileage may vary though.

when monetary wealth to all is not the goal, you don't want to know what is

That is one Sexy Airplane !!!!!!!!!!!!

Sexiest civilian prop-driven plane ever built!

More like PILATUS JET.

Sexiest airplane ever. Tore between Beech 18 or Lockheed loadstar bombers ( Howard 500,s) as second sexiest ever.

That is a vehicle my dad would call a "real lady".

Please learn the correct pronunciation of the "Waco" Aircraft Company. In that context, it is not the same as Waco Texas.

$14,000 ÷ $35(1 oz GOLD in 1933) = 400 oz of GOLD for 1 Plane. 400 oz × $2200 1oz GOLD 2024 = $880,000 ( this will only grow over time ) Any Inflation calculation NOT using GOLD is wrong. The US Dollar was backed by GOLD at the time. Therefore the comparison needs to be brought back to LEVEL. GOLD is MONEY. PAPER is CURRENCY.

Beech 17...sexiest plane ever...Beech 18..second sexiest ever !

people seem to use money to value money. If one bought $14k of gold in 1932, today that gold would be worth $1.3million. This is probably a fairer reflection of the true value. I wonder what property in NYC that was valued at $14k in 1932 would cost in 2024?

Whooping?

i dont get it. a state of the art buisness plane for 250.000 is an incredible bargain

The first with staggerwing was not the Dolphin but the DH5. Not good as a fighter was then used as light fighter bomber in 1917.