The Beechcraft Staggerwing in the National Air and Space Museum, serial number 93, was manufactured on July 3, 1936, and registered as NC15840. It was a Model C17B powered with a 285-hp Jacobs L-5M ...

Opera Kansas is presenting "Staggerwing," which tells the story of Blanche Noyes and Louise Thaden, who won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Air Race, and Olive Ann Beech, who headed up Beechcraft.

The Beechcraft Model 17 “Staggerwing” cuts an unusually sleek profile through aviation history. Today in Microsoft Flight Simulator, I’ll be flying the Model 17, widely regarded as one of ...

The aircraft type was called Staggerwing because its top wing is set slightly aft of the bottom one. Aimed at the corporate market, it debuted in 1932 for $14,000 and up.

(Photo: Austin Hancock) Beech YC-43 assembly line, probably Model 17R. This civilian type was the first production staggerwing model and featured a fixed landing gear.

They flew a Beechcraft C17R Staggerwing, created and manufactured in Wichita, to victory — stunning all experts as well as their competition.

Museum officials said the exhibit doesn’t presently include any Beech aircraft, although volunteers are working on multi-year restoration of a Staggerwing.

Though it was stylish and fast and came at the climax of the biplane era, the Staggerwing was obsolete when it was new. Karsten Palt/www.flugzeuginfo.net Late in 1932, the newborn Beech Aircraft ...

Rick Livingston of Hamilton stands next to his 1943 vintage Staggerwing Beech airplane that he plans to display Saturday at the annual Airport Heritage Days celebration at the Ravalli County Airport.

Next to such aircraft, the Staggerwing Beech, a four-passenger, single-engine biplane built starting in the early 1930s, looks positively primitive.

Opera Kansas is presenting "Staggerwing," which tells the story of Blanche Noyes and Louise Thaden, who won the 1936 Bendix Trophy Air Race, and Olive Ann Beech, who headed up Beechcraft.