It started life in 1944 inside a crate marked "Lend Lease." Meant to be a warbird, it was sent to Britain that year but never saw the light of day, much less the sky. The Brits called it a "Traveller." You and I see it and say, rather reverently, "Staggerwing."
Charlie Maples' airplane went 'across the pond' too late in World War 2 to haul an admiral or a general around the front, so it just sat there in the warehouse until all the dust settled. Then, somebody doing an inventory, no doubt, slapped a sticker on the crate and shipped it to Canada, where it languished awhile longer. Since the Canadians paid no attention either, the crate and all contents was sent back to the states where it was sold for an unceremonious 2-thousand 351 dollars, surplus, in or around 1947.
For those who are counting, that's about ten cents on the dollar.
Charlie (that's him on the right, feeding oil to his baby) says the airplane went to a fellow in California who managed to wash out the gear and the lower wing soon after he started flying it. All new parts were bought from Beechcraft and the plane was put back in service, but rarely flown again for the next 27 years. Then it was purchased by a gentleman in Pennsylvania who used it so little for another 20 or so years that he almost forgot he owned it. Charlie says when he called the man about five years ago, the response was: "Oh, yeah. I think I do have one of those."
The upshot of all this history is that by the time Charles Maples of Fairfax, VA, bought his 1944-model Staggerwing D17S, it had only 800 hours flying-time, total. Talk about finding buried treasure!
Maples calls the Staggerwing the "Learjet of the Thirties," and he's right. First produced in 1933, the plane was popular among corporate executives who, like today, wanted to "get there quick." 
They probably also liked the luxury of the thing--the back seat is a couch which Maples compares to something "out of your '56 Buick;" it seats three abreast.
Charlie has worked from the inside out to make sure it's as authentic as he can make it. In the picture to the left, you can see the t-bar yoke that was peculiar to military models of the airplane.
Outside, it sports a 9 cylinder, 450 HP Pratt and Whitney R985 with a supercharger, which he says gives him good cruise power up to 15,000 feet. Earlier Staggerwings had engines as small as a Jacobs 245 HP..but Maples is convinced his big engine is the best match for the 3,500 pound machine. Certified for five-on-board, he says you can put full fuel in and "still put a thousand pounds of people in it." It has five tanks with a total capacity of 125 gallons and burns about 21 gallons an hour while cruising at 200 mph. Climbout is an honest 1,500 FPM.
The gear, including the tail wheel, is retractible to make it one slick flying machine. And that's something else, he says, "..the landing gear has big springs. Once the thing takes off, the gear drops down about 12 inches, so it makes your touchdown real smooth. It's actually one of the easier tail draggers to fly."
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