Well, I’ll be danged. Textron is buying Beech. Now, let me see—Textron owns Cessna. That means Cessna and Beech will be joined. We have come full circle.
“Thereby,” as the great Bard himself put it so well, “hangs a tale.”
This will be the second time that Beech has been joined with Cessna.
Back in the 1920s, Clyde Cessna, Walter Beech and Lloyd Stearman formed the Travel Air Manufacturing Company. Building the successful Travel Air bi-planes, the company produced more airplanes in the mid-to-late 1920s than any other airplane manufacturer. They closed the doors after the economic crash of 1929.
Beech thereafter built the beautiful bi-plane, the Staggerwing Beech (I have a large, painted picture hanging in my office). Stearman became famous for the Stearman bi-plane and Clyde Cessna went on to build more airplanes than any other company in the world.
Now, after all these decades, Cessna and Beech will be in the same house.
The more things change…
About the Author
Ralph Hood
Certified Speaking Professional
Ralph Hood is a Certified Speaking Professional who has addressed aviation groups throughout North America. A pilot since 1969, he's insured and sold airplanes at retail and distributor levels and taught aviation management for Southern Illinois University.
Ralph Hood is also an award-winning columnist (he writes for several publications), a salesman and sales manager (he sold airplanes, for crying out loud!), a teacher (he taught college-level aviation management) and a professional public speaker who has entertained and enlightened audiences from Hawaii to Spain, and from Fairbanks to Puerto Rico.
- Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), National Speakers Association
- Past member, National Ethics Committee, National Speakers Association
- Past president of Alabama Speakers Association
- Member, Alabama Aviation Hall of Fame
- Past National Marketing Mentor, AOPA Project Pilot