Register Review

Four new types and four new variants of existing types are shown in the New Allocations section this month. The two most interesting are the first Qantas Boeing 787, about which much has been written already, and Owen Smith’s Beech Mentor XUS.

Walter Beech developed the Mentor as a replacement for the aging North American T-6 Texan which was in service with all the US military services at the time. Unfortunately there was no defence budget for new trainers but Beech persisted and eventually over 2,300 Mentors were built for the US Air Force and Navy, the Japan Air Self Defense Force and the Philippine Air Force as well several other smaller air forces and some civil operators.