 In 1942 Beech won its first Army-Navy "E" Award production award and became one of the elite five percent of war contracting firms in the country to win five straight awards for production efficiency, mostly for the production of the Beechcraft Model 18 which remains in widespread use worldwide.Beechcraft ranked 69th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts.After the war, the Staggerwing was replaced by the revolutionary Beechcraft Bonanza with a distinctive V-tail.