Survival Arts

A piece of living history: the Beech 17 Staggerwing still flying

My friend Tom Burroughes visited me earlier this fall in order to attend a 4-day defensive handgun course at Front Sight. Before and after he headed out to the Nevada desert to learn weaponcraft, we spent some time at northern California airfields and aviation museums. I'm a private pilot, and Tom, like me, is a an aviation enthusiast. Tom's the son of a retired RAF navigator, and loves historical aircraft, like this 1937 Beech 17 Staggerwing:

This is one of the classiest aircraft ever produced, and silent testimony to an era before the liability explosion which brought Wichita to its knees.

Thanks to the circulation department at the Morgan Hill Times, which ran this photograph on its front page 8 October 2002, and recently provided me a print from their "Wings of History" feature, which predates by 2 months their online presence.

Posted by Russell Whitaker at January 18, 2003 07:13 PM | TrackBack