The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. The six-seater, single-engined aircraft is still being produced by Beechcraft and has been in continuous production longer than any other aircraft in history. More than 17,000 Bonanzas of all variants have been built, produced in both distinctive V-tail and conventional tail configurations; early conventional-tail versions were marketed as the Debonair. Design and development At the end of World War II, two all-metal light aircraft emerged, the Model 35 Bonanza and the Cessna 195, that represented very different approaches to the premium end of the postwar civil-aviation market. With its high-wing, seven-cylinder radial engine, fixed tailwheel undercarriage, and roll-down side windows, the Cessna 195 was a continuation of prewar technology. The Bonanza, however, featured an easier-to-manage, horizontally opposed, six-cylinder engine, retractable tricycle undercarriage (although the nosewheel initially was not steerable, but castering) and low-wing configuration. Designed by a team led by Ralph Harmon, the model 35 Bonanza was a relatively fast, low-wing, all-aluminum design, at a time when most light aircraft were still made of wood and fabric. The Model 35 featured retractable landing gear, and its signature V-tail (equipped with combination elevator-rudders called "ruddervators"). The prototype 35 Bonanza made its first flight on December 22, 1945, with the type receiving an airworthiness certificate on March 25, 1947. Production began that year. The first 30–40 Bonanzas produced had fabric-covered flaps and ailerons, after which those surfaces were covered with magnesium alloy sheet. The Bonanza family eventually comprised three major variants: Model 35 Bonanza (1947–1982; V-tail) Model 33 Debonair or Bonanza (1960–1995; conventional tail) Model 36 Bonanza (1968–present; a stretched Model 33) The Model 33 Debonair was introduced in 1960 as a lower-priced model with more austere standard instrumentation, exterior equipment, paint schemes, and interior fabrics and trim than the more prestigious V-tail Bonanza. However, most Bonanza features were available as factory options on the Debonair, and by the mid 1960s, most Debonair buyers were ordering most or all of these options. Realizing this, Beechcraft dropped the Debonair name and most of the basic and seldom-ordered standard features with the introduction of the E33 in 1968. Despite its name, the Twin Bonanza is a substantially wider and heavier aircraft that is mostly dissimilar to the single-engined Bonanza; the only major shared parts are the front fuselage sides, windows, and main cabin door. However,