Beechcraft is a brand of Textron Aviation since 2014. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general aviation, commercial, and military aircraft, ranging from light single-engined aircraft to twin-engined turboprop transports, business jets, and military trainers. Beech later became a division of Raytheon and then Hawker Beechcraft before a bankruptcy sale turned its assets over to Textron.
The Schweizer Aircraft Corporation was an American manufacturer of sailplanes, agricultural aircraft and helicopters located in Horseheads, New York. It was incorporated in 1939 by three Schweizer brothers, who built their first glider in 1930. Previously the oldest privately owned aircraft company in the United States, Schweizer was acquired by Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation of Stratford, Connecticut in 2004, and became a diversified aerospace company. Schweizer Aircraft ceased operations in 2012. it was sold to Schweizer R.S.G. in 2018 and production lines were opened again. The company produces three models in 2020.
Rearwin Airplanes was a series of US airplane-manufacturing businesses founded by Andrew ("Rae") Rearwin in 1928. Rae Rearwin was an American businessman who had developed several successful business ventures in the Salina, Kansas area in the early 20th century. Although he had no experience with aircraft manufacturing, he felt that he could succeed with his solid business acumen. With his two sons, Ken and Royce, he hired some engineers and built the Ken-Royce in a garage in Salina. The business moved to the Fairfax Airport in Kansas City, Kansas, and went through several variations before it was sold to Commonwealth Aircraft in 1942, which went bankrupt in 1946.
Walter Herschel Beech was an American aviator and early aviation entrepreneur who co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company in 1932 with his wife, Olive Ann Beech, and a team of three others.
Olive Ann Beech was an American aerospace businesswoman who was the co-founder, president, and chairwoman of the Beech Aircraft Corporation. She founded the company in 1932 with her husband, Walter Beech, and a team of three others. She earned more awards, honorary appointments, and special citations than any other woman in aviation history and was often referred to as the “First Lady of Aviation”.
Monocoupe Aircraft is a type of small light airplanes originally produced in the late 1920s and 30s. The company was famous for introducing relatively inexpensive, compact, convenient, sporty, and efficient flying to the light plane market. In an era of large, expensive, open-cockpit biplanes, the Monocoupe was the first popular, compact, enclosed-cabin, two-seat, light plane in the United States. As a result, the Monocoupe soon became one of the most popular and successful brands of airplanes in American air races of the 1920s and 1930s.
Commonwealth Aircraft Company was an aircraft manufacturer from Valley Stream, New York. Originally Rearwin Aircraft & Engines of Kansas City, the company was renamed in 1942 after it was purchased by a new owner. During World War II, Commonwealth primarily made combat gliders under contract to the Waco Aircraft Company. After World War II, Commonwealth resumed production of the Rearwin-designed Commonwealth Skyranger and consolidated operations in Valley Stream, New York. Commonwealth Aircraft went bankrupt in March 1947 and ceased operations.
Harlow Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer at Alhambra Airport, Alhambra, California.
The American Eagle Aircraft Corporation was an American aircraft design and manufacturing company which existed briefly in Kansas, but which was a victim of the Great Depression, after building some 500 light airplanes, many of which were the Model A-129, a design attributed to noted aviation pioneer Giuseppe Mario Bellanca.
Interstate Aircraft and Engineering Corporation was a small American aircraft manufacturer in production from April 1937 to 1945, based in El Segundo, California.
The Rearwin Sportster is a 1930s American two-seat, high-winged, cabin monoplane designed and built by Rearwin Aircraft & Engines for sport/touring use.
The Eaglet 31 was a United States two-seat tandem ultra-light high-winged monoplane of the early 1930s. Intended as a low-cost aircraft, its limited production run relegated it to a footnote in aviation history.
Fairfax Municipal Airport was a Kansas City, Kansas airfield from 1921 that was used during 1935–1949 by the military. Federal land adjacent to the airfield included a WWII B-25 Mitchell plant and modification center and a Military Air Transport terminal. After being used as a Cold War-era Air Force Base, it was used for airliner servicing by TWA and for automobile and jet fighter aircraft production by General Motors, which built a 1985 Fairfax Plant over runways when the municipal airport closed.
Emil Matthew Laird was a pioneering American aircraft builder, pilot, and businessman. He put the first commercial aircraft into production at his E. M. Laird Aviation Company.
The O.W. Timm Aircraft Company was an American aircraft manufacturer founded by Otto William Timm, based in Los Angeles, California.
The history of Wichita details the history of Wichita, Kansas from its initial settlement in the 1860s to the present day.
Charles Townsend Ludington, , was a businessman and socialite of Philadelphia. He was an aviation pioneer who helped establish an every-hour-on-the-hour air service between New York and Washington.
Dwane Leon Wallace was an American aviation businessman and aircraft designer. He served as the President and/or chairman of the board of the Cessna Aircraft Company from 1935 until the 1970s, having then continued on the board as a director and consultant into the 1980s. He is generally credited with leading the company from a minor role in the aviation industry to overwhelming dominance—ultimately the world's largest and most diverse general aviation manufacturer with the highest volume of aircraft production. Wallace later became known as the "Quiet Giant of Aviation", and was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2012. He was included in the Flying Magazine list of the "51 Heroes of Aviation", placing at number 11.
The Rearwin Ken-Royce was an American three-seat sport/touring biplane built by Rearwin Airplanes first in Salina, Kansas then Kansas City. It was the first airplane built by the company.
