A Tale of Two Twins
Standing nose-to-nose, the two twins looked like they were eyeing each other like boxers at one of those weigh-ins staged before a fight. Silently they just glared, engines ready to strike the moment the other one flinched. Clearly one was larger, but the other one had a reputation for speed and performance almost unequalled in general aviation. The Cessna was mounted on tall undercart legs with long, spreading wings capped by large fuel tanks at the tips. The Beechcraft was on shorter stumps and had broader wings that terminated with a more conventional style.
As the crews milled around, the Beechcraft BE58 Baron and the Cessna 310R simply waited in silence; in a few minutes they would get to do their talking in the air.
This little scene happened at Wagga Wagga airport in October last year, as Baron owner Darren Kelly and C310R exponent Chris Cabot prepared their aircraft for a match-race from Wagga Wagga to Cowra and back. The idea was to compare the performances of the two aircraft when flown to the best of their ability to add more fire to an argument already 50 years old: which of these two aircraft, both designs from the mid 20th Century, has most right to the title of the best six-seat charter twin.
The back story
The BE58 has heritage that stretches back to the groundbreaking Beech Bonanza. That platform gave rise to the BE95 Travel Air, a 180-hp per side twin designed to slot in between the Bonanza and the bulky BE50 Twin Bonanza. In 1961, Beechcraft rolled out the BE55 Baron, a new machine born from mating a Bonanza fuselage and the tail control surfaces of the T-34 Mentor, the product
