When the project was put into operation in 1968, however, the drones were all flown by pilots of the 554th Reconnaissance Squadron. These aircraft were intended to be used as unmanned drones to monitor sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos and report troop and supply movements. A reduction geared Continental IO-520 engine was used to reduce its noise signature, much like the later Army-Lockheed YO-3A. The QU-22 was a Beech 36/A36 Bonanza modified during the Vietnam War to be an electronic monitoring signal relay aircraft, developed under the project name "Pave Eagle" for the United States Air Force. The FAA instead opted to issue a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) requesting that the elevator control cables be inspected during the annual inspection. The AD affected only Australian aircraft and was not adopted by the airworthiness authority responsible for the type certificate, the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Aircraft with frayed cables were grounded until the cables were replaced and those that passed inspection were required to have their cables replaced within 60 days regardless. At the time of the grounding some Bonanzas had reached 64 years in service. The AD was issued based on two aircraft found to have frayed cables, one of which suffered a cable failure just prior to take-off and resulting concerns about the age of the cables in fleet aircraft of this age. In January 2012 the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority issued an airworthiness directive grounding all Bonanzas, Twin Bonanzas and Debonairs equipped with a single pole style yoke and that have forward elevator control cables that are more than 15 years old until they could be inspected. The twin-engine variant of the Bonanza is called the Baron, whereas the Twin Bonanza is a different design and not based on the original single-engine Bonanza fuselage. This feature started with the V-tail and persists on the current production model. In the landing phase, the bungee system must be overridden by the pilot when making crosswind landings, which require cross-controlled inputs to keep the nose of the airplane aligned with the runway center line without drifting left or right. Increased right-rudder pressure is still required on takeoff to overcome torque and P-factor. The bungee system allows the pilot to make coordinated turns using the yoke alone, or with minimal rudder input, during cruise flight. Īll Bonanzas share an unusual feature: The yoke and rudder pedals are interconnected by a system of bungee cords that assist in keeping the airplane in coordinated flight during turns. Still built today is the Model 36 Bonanza, a longer-bodied, straight-tail variant of the original design, introduced in 1968. In 1982 the production of the V-tail Bonanza stopped but the conventional-tail Model 33 continued in production until 1995. "Doctor killer" has sometimes been used to describe the conventional tailed version as well. The V-tail design gained a reputation as the "forked-tail doctor killer", due to crashes by overconfident amateur pilots with high-level skills outside aviation, fatal accidents, and in-flight breakups. The first 30–40 Bonanzas produced had fabric-covered flaps and ailerons, after which, those surfaces were covered with magnesium alloy sheet. The prototype 35 Bonanza made its first flight on 22 December 1945, with the first production aircraft debuting as 1947 models.
The Model 35 featured retractable landing gear, and its signature V-tail (equipped with a combination elevator-rudder called a ruddervator), which made it both efficient and the most distinctive private aircraft in the sky. With its high wing, seven-cylinder radial engine, fixed tailwheel undercarriage and roll-down side windows, the Cessna 195 was little more than a continuation of prewar technology the 35 Bonanza, however, was more like the fighters developed during the war, featuring an easier-to-manage horizontally-opposed six cylinder engine, a rakishly streamlined shape, retractable nosewheel undercarriage (although the nosewheel initially was not steerable, or castering) and low-wing configuration.įile:Advertisement for Beechcraft Model 35 Bonanza, May, 1947.jpgġ947 advertisement for the first Model 35 Bonanzaĭesigned by a team led by Ralph Harmon, the model 35 Bonanza was a relatively fast, low-wing monoplane at a time when most light aircraft were still made of wood and fabric. At the end of World War II, two all-metal aircraft emerged, the Model 35 Bonanza and the Cessna 195, that represented very different approaches to the premium-end of the postwar civil aviation market.