Beechcraft Duchess
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The Beechcraft Model 76 Duchess is an American twin-engined monoplane built by
Beechcraft Beechcraft is an American brand of civil aviation and military aircraft owned by Textron Aviation since 2014, headquartered in Wichita, Kansas. Originally, it was a brand of Beech Aircraft Corporation, an American manufacturer of general avi ...
intended partly as a low cost introduction to twin-engine aircraft.


Development

Developed as Model PD289 (Preliminary Design 289), the prototype was unveiled on November 4, 1974, although it had first flown in September 1974. The Model 76 was designed as an economical twin-engine trainer for the Beech Aero Centers and to compete with the similar Gulfstream Cougar as well as the
Cessna 310 The Cessna 310 is an American four-to-six-seat, low-wing, twin-engine monoplane produced by Cessna between 1954 and 1980. It was the first twin-engine aircraft that Cessna put into production after World War II. Development The 310 first fle ...
. The first production version flew on 24 May 1977, and the name "Duchess" was chosen through a company competition. Construction of the Duchess was set for a new factory built at the Liberal Division, with deliveries beginning early in 1978. Production of the Duchess continued until 1983, with no significant changes. A single example was tested with turbocharged engines in 1979, but did not proceed to production.


Design

The Duchess is an all-metal low-wing monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear and a
T-tail A T-tail is an empennage configuration in which the tailplane is mounted to the top of the fin. The arrangement looks like the capital letter T, hence the name. The T-tail differs from the standard configuration in which the tailplane ...
. It seats four. The design used components and the bonded wing construction from Beechcraft's single-engined Musketeer line. The basic fuselage and wing structure was adapted from the Model 24 Sierra, a Musketeer variant with
retractable landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...
, but the Sierra
wing spar In a fixed-wing aircraft, the spar is often the main structural member of the wing, running spanwise at right angles (or thereabouts depending on wing sweep) to the fuselage. The spar carries flight loads and the weight of the wings while on t ...
was redesigned to support the added weight of the engines. Nose landing gear from the A36 Bonanza was used. The Model 76 incorporates right and left "handed"
Lycoming O-360 The Lycoming O-360 is a family of four-cylinder, direct-drive, horizontally opposed, air-cooled, piston aircraft engines. Engines in the O-360 series produce between 145 and 225 horsepower (109 to 168 kW), with the basic O-360 producing ...
engines that rotate in opposing directions to eliminate the
critical engine The critical engine of a multi-engine fixed-wing aircraft is the engine that, in the event of failure, would most adversely affect the performance or handling abilities of an aircraft. On propeller aircraft, there is a difference in the remaining ...
during single engine operation.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', page 84. Werner & Werner Corp, Santa Monica CA, 1977. In 1979, a single example was converted to test the turbocharged versions of the engine. The cowlings were reshaped and the exhaust moved to accommodate the aft-mounted turbochargers. The Duchess wing is of aluminum honeycomb construction fastened by bonding, rather than rivets, to reduce cost and produce a smoother aerodynamic surface.


T-tail

The use of a T-tail on the Model 76 met with mixed critical reception when the aircraft was introduced. Plane & Pilot pronounced: "Outstanding design characteristics of the new Duchess include an aerodynamically advantageous T-tail, which places the horizontal surfaces above the propeller slipstream for better stability and handling.", while Gerald Foster said: " eechcraft'sinterest in T-tails was perhaps an affectation triggered by their wide use on jet airliners".Montgomery, MR & Gerald Foster: ''A Field Guide to Airplanes, Second Edition'', page 92. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1992. ''AVweb'' claims that Beechcraft adopted the T-tail after flight tests revealed that the initially used conventional horizontal stabilizer was too small and suffered from buffeting problems, increasing noise and vibration during flight; moving the horizontal stabilizer out of the propeller slipstream eliminated the buffeting and the need for enlargement while adding only of weight. Additionally, the T-tail design moved the stabilizer rearward, increasing its effectiveness and giving the aircraft a broader
center of gravity In physics, the center of mass of a distribution of mass in space (sometimes referred to as the balance point) is the unique point where the weighted relative position of the distributed mass sums to zero. This is the point to which a force ma ...
range. The later
Piper Seminole The Piper PA-44 Seminole is an American twin-engined light aircraft manufactured by Piper Aircraft. The PA-44 is a development of the Piper Cherokee single-engined aircraft and is primarily used for multi-engined flight training.Montgomery ...
also adopted a T-tail.


Variants

;Model 76 Duchess :Four-seat, twin-engine (Lycoming O-360), low-winged trainer with bonded aluminum construction. ;Model 76TC Duchess :Unofficial designation for single test aircraft using turbocharged Lycoming O-360.


Operators

The aircraft remains popular with flight training schools. * Beechcraft - Tested one Duchess to investigate its spin recovery characteristics in conjunction with
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil List of government space agencies, space program ...
. *
National Test Pilot School The National Test Pilot School (NTPS) is the only civilian test-pilot school in the United States, located in Mojave, California. It is organized as a not-for-profit educational institute under California state law and is governed by a board of ...
- Operates one Duchess. *
Purdue University Purdue University is a public land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded in 1869 after Lafayette businessman John Purdue donated land and mone ...
- Uses a Duchess modified with air sampling equipment as ''Airborne Laboratory Atmospheric Research (ALAR)''. *
Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to deve ...
- Uses one Duchess as a test aircraft.


Specifications


See also


References

*


External links

{{Beechcraft
Duchess Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranke ...
1970s United States civil trainer aircraft Low-wing aircraft T-tail aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1974 Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft