CLASSICS Beagle 206 at 60
Some loved it, others loathed it. But in its 60th anniversary year, what do former pilots of the Beagle 206 think of the British twin?
“Essentialla dreadful aeroplane”, says one pilot. “A pleasure to fly”, remarks another. The same type of aircraft, two wildly differing views. Nothing especially unusual about that, but the Beagle 206 has always divided opinion. Was it the machine that could have brought Britain success in the burgeoning market for light executive transports had it not been for American manufacturing might, or a fundamentally flawed offering from a small company that was never going to be profitable?
The truth, as so often, probably lies somewhere between the extremes. Sixty years on from the first prototype’s maiden flight, the 206 has all but faded from view. But, like so many might-have-been British aeroplanes of that era, it continues to provoke debate. What all would surely agree on is that a production run of just 80 examples represented a poor return on considerable investment, not least by the state.
It all looked so different when Beagle was formed in 1960. The company’s founding managing director, Peter Masefield, came with a tremendous track record a…
