Beagle B.206
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 1999
Location: UK
Posts: 1
Beagle B.206
In May 1963 the 'Air Pictorial' aviation magazine published a report of an air test carried out on the new Beagle B.206. The editorial of the same issue deemed the aircraft to be 'best in its class' and expressed high hopes for its success.
In the event only 79 examples of the aircraft were built, including 20 for the RAF and sadly the Beagle Aircraft Ltd - always struggling financially - was declared bankrupt in 1969.
Beagle B.206 air test
In the event only 79 examples of the aircraft were built, including 20 for the RAF and sadly the Beagle Aircraft Ltd - always struggling financially - was declared bankrupt in 1969.
Beagle B.206 air test
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 57
Posts: 8,031
I remember a number of ex RAF 206s at Biggin in the mid 1970s and a line of them outside a hangar at Fort Lauderdale Executive in 1984 - guy there loved them and offered refurbished and upgraded 206s for the customer's delectation...
Nice looking aircraft, perhaps like the Pup too expensive to build? If only...
There was a story about a friend of Peter Masefield asking if he could buy a Pup at cost. "Sure" replied Masefield, "we need the extra cash"!
Nice looking aircraft, perhaps like the Pup too expensive to build? If only...
There was a story about a friend of Peter Masefield asking if he could buy a Pup at cost. "Sure" replied Masefield, "we need the extra cash"!
Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Lincolnshire
Age: 60
Posts: 263
I flew the Key Publishing Basset several times - lovely to fly but MASSIVELY over-engineered. Treaders has hit the nail on the thumb, it's superior in most ways to the Seneca/TwinCom/Baron etc but was very expensive.
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: CEH2 (Black Diamond, Alberta)
Posts: 5,579
lovely to fly but MASSIVELY over-engineered.
It is interesting to compare the B206 with a contemporary Cessna 411 - same power, roughly the same speeds, same useful load, but the B206 was 25% heavier!
_______Empty (lb) Gross (lb)
C 411 __3800 ____6500
B206 __4800 _____7500
What were Beagle's management thinking? Obviously they had forgotten or never heard of the apocryphal saying:
Simplicate and add lightness
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Australia
Age: 55
Posts: 2,021
Give me a Piper PA-31/310 Navajo any day.
Worked with a guy that had flown them with the RFDS NSW Section out of Broken Hill, he said they were over engineered and under engined- needed a lot more horsepower and better engine reliability.
Worked with a guy that had flown them with the RFDS NSW Section out of Broken Hill, he said they were over engineered and under engined- needed a lot more horsepower and better engine reliability.
Thought police antagonist
Join Date: Jul 2003
Location: Where I always have been...firmly in the real world
Posts: 85
For anybody interested, the original now has a home here....and if anybody has an interest in helping restoring it please let me know and I'll put you in touch with some people I know who would be very appreciative of your involvement.
East Midlands Aeropark
East Midlands Aeropark
Gnome de PPRuNe
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Too close to Croydon for comfort
Age: 57
Posts: 8,031
Stationair8, at least two of the RFDS 206s made their way back to Britain (replaced by Beech 200s?), they were parked at Biggin for a bit circa 1978/79 I think. I believe they eventually went on to the US. If I recall, the Fort Lauderdale outfit installed uprated engines.
The Beagle Miles 218/Beagle 242 was a prototype four seater twin originally designed as a replacement for the Gemini but never really developed due to the concentration on the 206 and the Pup - I wonder how it might have fared. Beagle planned a family of GA twins.
The Beagle Miles 218/Beagle 242 was a prototype four seater twin originally designed as a replacement for the Gemini but never really developed due to the concentration on the 206 and the Pup - I wonder how it might have fared. Beagle planned a family of GA twins.
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: River Thames & Surrey
Age: 72
Posts: 9,001
I recollect the RAF buy was originally for the purpose of transporting V bomber crews to dispersal airfields, until it was found you couldn't get 5 bomber crew members and all their flying gear in it along with the 2 crew flying it.
Shorts provided the groundcrew contract at Bovingdon and several of my ATC squadron adult staff worked there. It was a standing joke that when selecting a Basset from the 206 production line, the RAF were allocated those which had encountered 'problems' of some sort as they were built. Certainly they found that when landing on Bovingdon's main runway 20, undulations in the surface caused the propellor tips to touch the ground so the props had to be 'modified' locally (I was told this entailed filing the blade tips down).
Last Basset flying (as opposed to B206) was I believe the ETPS one at Boscombe Down which I think was still operating until the late '80s or even early '90s.
Shorts provided the groundcrew contract at Bovingdon and several of my ATC squadron adult staff worked there. It was a standing joke that when selecting a Basset from the 206 production line, the RAF were allocated those which had encountered 'problems' of some sort as they were built. Certainly they found that when landing on Bovingdon's main runway 20, undulations in the surface caused the propellor tips to touch the ground so the props had to be 'modified' locally (I was told this entailed filing the blade tips down).
Last Basset flying (as opposed to B206) was I believe the ETPS one at Boscombe Down which I think was still operating until the late '80s or even early '90s.
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: jersey
Age: 73
Posts: 4
spare 206
I expect there is still a 206 sitting in the ice south of Sondrestrom airfield Greenland .Don Bullock put it there on a ferry flight when an oil line parted.He repaired it and was having a strip prepared when another storm came in. We flew over it in a king Air 90 in 1973and you could see the tail plane. The old sod tried to sell it to me for $10 .Happy digging.
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Wilts
Posts: 296
Originally Posted by Krystal n chips
For anybody interested, the original now has a home here....and if anybody has an interest in helping restoring it please let me know and I'll put you in touch with some people I know who would be very appreciative of your involvement.
East Midlands Aeropark
East Midlands Aeropark
Join Date: Jul 2018
Location: Wilts
Posts: 296
Originally Posted by Akrotiri bad boy
There used to be a Basset on the line down at Halton airfield. Anyone any info on how it came to be there and where it ended up?
