No #4 Powerful, fast and originally featuring a highly distinctive V-tail, the Beechcraft Bonanza made its first appearance in 1945 as the model 35. As a result of a high-profile series of fatal accidents, the V-tail version became suspected of having structural flaws, and while Beech never found conclusive proof this was the case, it eventually dropped the V-tail design in 1982 in favor of developing the longer-fuselage, conventional-tail model 36 Bonanza first introduced in 1968. From 1959 until 1995 Beech also produced another version of the Bonanza, the model 33 Debonair. The model G36 is still being produced by Hawker Beechcraft and more than 17,000 examples of the long-lived Bonanza single-engine piston family of aircraft have been built to date.
