Veterans Air Lift Command

Among the aficionados of the war bird genre, the Beech Mentor is a popular airplane. Officially the T-34, the Mentor was used by both the US Air Force and Navy as a primary trainer. It was derived from the ubiquitous Bonanza, is easy to fly, and good at aerobatics. What could be better for pilot training?

Walter Beech developed the T-34 as a private venture thinking the military would like an economical replacement for the North American T-6/SNJ then in use. As usual, Beech was spot on and sold 348 "A" models to the Air Force and 423 "Bs" to the Navy. Whoever the Navy put in charge of buying t...