Structural Design: An account of the design philosophy pursued and the testing methods used to prove the integrity of the structure

WHEN attempting to discuss the structural philosophy of the B.206, it is necessary to go back to the closing days of 1960, when it was decided that the newly formed Beagle Aircraft Company would produce a twin engined executive aircraft along the lines of the existing American products of the day. A very rigid time scale was fixed for the project since it was deemed essential to have a first aircraft flying not later than September, 1961. The urgency of this time scale precluded too deep an excursion into unconventional structural solutions since these would have had to be backed by a considerable amount of development tests, the facilities for such tests not being in existence at Beagle in those early days. However, whilst well tried conventional solutions were adopted, the dictates of weight control and structural efficiency were obeyed and a certain amount of fairly advanced structural solutions based on the use of Redux bonding were attempted.