Beechcraft Travel Air

what is it?

The Beechcraft Travel Air is a twin-engine development of the Beechcraft Bonanza. It was designed to fill the gap between the single engine Model 35 Bonanza and the much larger Model 50 Twin Bonanza, and ultimately served as the basis for its replacement, the Baron.

🔎How to recognise it: 2 piston engines with propellers · retractable tricycle gear · 11.5 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 338 km/htop speed
• seats 4passengers
• size 1,905 kgmax take-off weight
• built 720made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 70 years ago, in 1956.
• 🏎️Top speed is 2.6× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 11.5 m: about 3 cars parked nose to tail.

piston: A car-like piston engine turning a propeller: simple and cheap, the classic small plane.

spec sheet

first flight

1956

introduced

1958

status

still flying

number built

720

role

light twin aircraft

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Beechcraft

engines

2× Lycoming IO-360-B1B

crew

1

passengers

4

length

7.9 m

wingspan

11.5 m

height

2.9 m

max take-off weight

1,905 kg

top speed

338 km/h

cruise speed

314 km/h

range

—

ceiling

5,517 m

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.