The venerable Twin Beech has always been the airplane someone was going to write a book about. Its long production run of 32 years easily justified the effort but of even greater significance has been its varied and useful life. The only other twin engine, piston powered airplane to enjoy a compararable existence is, of course the famed Douglas DC-3, already the subject of several good books.

For this book though the author’s purpose was to tell the ongoing history of a unique airplane: one that not only ‘built’ a company, but served equally well in peace, war, and peace again.

To this end, the many different environments… other aircraft manufacturers, and other airplanes of that time… are included to provide the context in which the development of the Twin Beech… its early production and sales… wartime production and use and postwar success… can be more easily understood and appreciated.