Beechcraft Model 34

The Beechcraft Model 34, nicknamed the Twin-Quad, was a prototype airliner that Beechcraft designed and built between the Second World War and the Korean War, when many American manufacturers expected a boom in civil aviation. It was a four-engine high-wing monoplane with a V-tail and tricycle undercarriage, designed for 14 passengers and eventually converted to carry 20. Its four horizontally opposed Lycoming GSO-580 engines were buried in the wings and coupled in pairs to a single propeller through clutches and a common gearbox. The prototype first flew on 1 October 1947 and was damaged beyond repair in a forced landing on 17 January 1949. With no orders and thousands of cheap war-surplus transports on the market, Beech ended the project, and the Model 34 remains the largest and heaviest Beechcraft civil design.