You enter the cabin area by the rear fuselage (usually a door on the port side towards the rear of the cabin, some Staggerwings had doors on both sides) and you either sit back into the rear seats or climb steeply uphill to the two front seats. For an aircraft of it's size the Beechcraft Staggerwing has a lot of space in the cabin area. Space mixed with leather, wood fascia and plenty of gadgets lends to the feeling of luxury travel in it's day - even the modern Cessna's that I fly are more crampt and have none of the luxury items found in the Staggerwing (for instance wind up windows). Sitting at the controls is overwhelming - levers, knobs, buttons, dials and switches are seemingly scattered all over the panel, seemingly at random.

You can not see directly ahead while on the ground, but with a little straining and stretching, you can peer around that big engine sufficiently well to taxi. On the ground the Staggerwing bounces over each and every bump on the airfield, although the comfort inside still gives a very comfortable ride. 

During flight the comfort is outstanding. I recently flew in the back of NC-18028 (thanks Paul) and I had acres of leg room and head room. It is easy to move about with 4 adults and the rear seat will easily seat 3 taking the full capacity to 5. Behind the rear passengers are air vent similar to those on modern day airliners. 

Some of the additional items fitted in the Staggerwing and helped to identify this as luxury travel in its day are, passenger air vents, cigar lighter and ash tray, wind down windows, courtesy lights, etc.

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Last modified: September 19, 2000