Those Incomparable Bonanzas by Larry A. Ball

Hardcover. Condition: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good. 1979. McCormick-Armstrong Co. 5th Printing. Signed by author. Illustrated.

This is the complete book about the airplane that became the standard of the industry… the Beechcraft Bonanza! How it all started in 1944… the original design team and their early efforts to find the ideal airplane for the postwar market… how and why the V-tail was chosen… aerodynamics of the V-tail and early testing… Bonanza power plants, both production and experimental such as the over-under arrangement of two 4 cylinder Franklins… Walter Beech and the Bonanza… a rare photo of the first flight (with a Lycoming engine and a laminar flow wing)… the Bonanza wind tunnel testing… Bell Aircraft and the V-tail… the Beechcraft Grizzly… flight test of the radio controlled drone Bonanza… the V-tail AT-10… the Beechcraft Twin Quad, the largest V-tail aircraft ever built… Staggerwing influence… structural testing… the 35R… the Bevo Howard and the A35 he flew aerobatics in at Cleveland in 1948… the Air Force and Navy Mentor Trainers developed from the Bonanza design… the Bonanza long distance flights… the birth of the Debonair… why the “straight” tail… the Bonanza 36… little known military Bonanzas… Bonanza modifications… the American Bonanza Society and the first meeting in Wichita… complete specifications of all the Bonanza models (including the 33s and 36s)… the significant changes from model to model and even the changes that occurred during the production run of each model… experimental Bonanzas such as the O35 that never saw production, and much, much, more… literally everything from the beginning of the idea all the way up to 1972 production.