__NOTOC__ The Beecraft Queen Bee was an American

V-tail The V-tail or ''vee-tail'' (sometimes called a butterfly tail or Rudlicki's V-tailGudmundsson S. (2013). "General Aviation Aircraft Design: Applied Methods and Procedures" (Reprint). Butterworth-Heinemann. p. 489. , 9780123973290) of an aircraf ...

ed four-seat cabin

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple wings. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing con ...

, designed and built by Bee Aviation Associates (Beecraft).

Development

The Queen Bee was an all-metal cantilever low-wing

Lycoming O-320-A1A The Lycoming O-320 is a large family of naturally aspirated, air-cooled, horizontally-opposed four-cylinder, direct-drive engines produced by Lycoming Engines. Introduced in 1953, it is commonly used on light aircraft such as the Cessna 172 ...

flat-four piston engine. It had a V-tail and an electrically retractable

tricycle landing gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', that is arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has one or more nose wheels in a single front undercarriage and two or more main wheels slightly aft of th ...

. The

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

shared a similar shape to the

Ryan Navion The Ryan (originally North American) Navion is a single-engine, unpressurized, retractable gear, four-seat aircraft originally designed and built by North American Aviation in the 1940s. It was later built by Ryan Aeronautical Company and ...

. The wings were outfitted with fiberglass tip

tanks A tank is an armoured fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armour, and battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; t ...

. A 180 hp Lycoming O-360-A-1-A was planned as an optional engine. Only a

prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototype ...

was built and the aircraft did not enter production. The Queen Bee prototype was destroyed when the original San Diego Aerospace Museum burned down in 1978.

Specifications

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * 1960s United States civil utility aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 1960

Queen Bee A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female ( gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are develope ...

V-tail aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Single-engined piston aircraft Aircraft with retractable tricycle landing gear {{Aero-1960s-stub