Photo by SDASM Archives (Flickr: Beech, Olive Ann) [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

• AVIATION EXECUTIVE
• Started as a bookkeeper at Travel Air Manufacturing Company, and rose to become personal secretary of the company's owner, Walter Beech, whom she eventually married
• After Travel Air was devastated by the 1929 stock market crash, Walter and Olive cofounded Beech Aircraft, with Olive again serving as his secretary
• Their first important design was the Model 17 Staggerwing, which Walter wanted to enter in the National Air Races. Olive suggested having a woman fly it to gain additional press. Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes piloted the plane and won first place, helping Beech Aircraft reach annual sales of one million dollars in 1938.
• Olive took over Walter's duties in 1940 when he became bedridden and couldn't work
• Oversaw the company's transition from commercial to military production for World War II, increased payroll to 14,000 employees, manufactured more than 7,400 military planes, and sold $122 million of aircraft in 1945
• Ninety percent of American pilots and navigators were trained on the Beechcraft Model 18 during the war
• Returned to commercial production after WWII, but once again manufactured military aircraft for the Korean War
• Became PRESIDENT & CHAIR of the board after Walter died in 1950, officially assuming the responsibilities she had been performing since her husband first became ill
• Steered Beech Aircraft into a leadership position in the production of fuel systems for NASA rockets, and guided the company's merger with Raytheon Corporation in 1980, retiring two years later
• Known as a generous philanthropist in Wichita, funding arts and education programs
• FIRST woman to receive the National Aeronautic Association's Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy

Bibliography: Drachman, Virginia G. Enterprising Women: 250 Years of American Business. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2002. Print.
​Burling, Alexis. Women in Business. Minneapolis: Abdo Publishing, 2017. Print.

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Wichita State University Library
Beechcraft Heritage Museum

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