Beechcraft Duchess

The Beechcraft Model 76 Duchess is an American twin-engined, all-metal, low-wing monoplane that Beechcraft built partly as a low cost introduction to twin-engine flying. Developed as Model PD289, the prototype was unveiled on 4 November 1974 although it had first flown that September, and it was designed as an economical twin-engine trainer for the Beech Aero Centers to compete with the Gulfstream Cougar and the Cessna 310. It seats four, has retractable tricycle landing gear and a T-tail, and borrows components and bonded wing construction from the single-engined Musketeer line, with its fuselage and wing adapted from the Model 24 Sierra and its nose gear taken from the A36 Bonanza. Production continued until 1983 with no significant changes.