Air-to-Air Bonanza E33

Lowflynjack

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Jack Fleetwood
I shot this beautiful E33 last year at Oshkosh. My photos and story by Budd Davisson are in the April edition of Sport Aviation magazine.

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Like that paint scheme...wonder if it would look good on a Warrior...
 
Yep. Looks like a VOR/LOC/GS antenna.

Looks like there are three (! ??) GPS antennas on top, between the two comm antennas...
 
LOL, I logged on and thought, wow, this thread got a lot of attention. Then I noticed... 13 replies... 6 are about the antennas!! :D
 
Well, as usual your photos are splendid. I particularly liked the one with a red barn in the background.
Thanks. I made sure to add that one since I liked what the barn added to it!
 
Gorgeous Debonair and great photos as usual, Jack! :drool:
Thank you, Stan! Always good to hear from you.

Technically it's not a Debonair. Never thought I'd know so much about these planes. The reason we did this story is because it's a rare E33 Bonanza, I think 115 or so made. Only named E33 in '68 and '69
 
Thank you, Stan! Always good to hear from you.

Technically it's not a Debonair. Never thought I'd know so much about these planes. The reason we did this story is because it's a rare E33 Bonanza, I think 115 or so made. Only named E33 in '68 and '69
Oops! Mea culpa. My most humble apologies.

AOPA Pilot Sept. 1998 said:
In 1966, the C33A Debonair introduced the 285-hp Continental IO-520 to the straight-tail airframe. With the introduction of the E33 two years later, Beech began calling the no-longer-budget bird what everybody already knew it to be — a Bonanza, although the "poor man's" moniker hung around for several years afterward.
 
This one is an E33A, the 285 hp model. E33, without the suffix, was the 225 hp version. It was the same pattern with the earlier C33/C33A and later F33/F33A.

The E33C and F33C were 285 hp aerobatic versions. Beech offered a 225 hp aerobatic option, E33B and F33B, but none were ever ordered or built.
 
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This one is an E33A, the 285 hp model.

Curious, is there a way to tell the difference between the two without looking up the registration? Such as a cowl shape or something?
 
Curious, is there a way to tell the difference between the two without looking up the registration? Such as a cowl shape or something?
Yes. The 225 hp models all had the old Bonanza nose cap with separate openings on either side of the spinner. All the 285 hp models have the single full-width opening, to accommodate the canted thrust line. Also, the 225 hp models had fixed cowl flaps.

E33 and E33A:

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^^^ interesting! Learn something new every day. Thanks!
 
The only IO-470-powered Bonanza built with the single, full-width cowl opening was the rare G33 Bonanza with the 260 hp IO-470-N (only 50 built in 1972-73). Unlike the N35 and P35 V-tail Bonanzas (1961-63) that had the same engine, the G33 was built with the engine canted to the right and downward, as on the IO-520-powered models. Thus the old-style nose cap would not fit. And unlike the 225 hp models, the G33 had operating cowl flaps.

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Lookee what I found on ebay. Its a two page magazine spread from the sixties, but nothing on the back of either page that gives a date or the magazine. I thought it odd that the same tail number, N8633M, is used for both the V35A and the V35A TC with different paint schemes.

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Great job as always Jack. I love the golden-hour effect on the colors.

On another note I got around to reading the April Cessna Owners magazine with the Citation photos. We all see the beautiful external photos from your shoots but the interior shots of that Citation were fantastic as well.

Good job.
 
Lookee what I found on ebay. Its a two page magazine spread from the sixties, but nothing on the back of either page that gives a date or the magazine. I thought it odd that the same tail number, N8633M, is used for both the V35A and the V35A TC with different paint schemes.
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The V35A, V35A-TC, E33 and E33A were the 1968-69 models. This ad doesn't mention the aerobatic models E33C (285 hp) and E33B (225 hp; listed in the catalog but none were ever ordered or built), which came along a little later in 1968. So this ad is probably from the new-model splash at the tail end of 1967 or early 1968.

Manufacturers had to get the print ads to the magazines and brochures out to their dealers well in advance of the airplanes being ready. Thus they would often photograph last year's model with a new paint job and put it in the next year's ads and brochures. In this case Beech evidently used the same airplane - N8633M - to double as both the V35A and V35A-TC.

Piper would often pull one of the previous year's models off the line, repaint it and add exterior modifications as necessary, and show it as next year's model. In the early 1990s I put about about 150 rental hours on this Turbo Arrow, by serial number a 1983 model but painted in the 1984 scheme:



For their ads Cessna often would doll up their tired, oft-modified engineering prototype mules. An example was N34266, which was painted in turn as the 1962 base 182, the '62 Skylane, the '63 Skylane, and with redesigned cabin windows, the '64 Skylane.

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The 1978 Grumman-American Tiger? Not a Tiger at all; it's a Cheetah with Tiger paint and logos.

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Sales brochure photos are not always reliable guides for spotting a particular year or model.
 
The V35A, V35A-TC, E33 and E33A were the 1968-69 models. This ad doesn't mention the aerobatic models E33C (285 hp) and E33B (225 hp; listed in the catalog but none were ever ordered or built), which came along a little later in 1968. So this ad is probably from the new-model splash at the tail end of 1967 or early 1968.

Manufacturers had to get the print ads to the magazines and brochures out to their dealers well in advance of the airplanes being ready. Thus they would often photograph last year's model with a new paint job and put it in the next year's ads and brochures. In this case Beech evidently used the same airplane - N8633M - to double as both the V35A and V35A-TC.

Piper would often pull one of the previous year's models off the line, repaint it and add exterior modifications as necessary, and show it as next year's model. In the early 1990s I put about about 150 rental hours on this Turbo Arrow, by serial number a 1983 model but painted in the 1984 scheme:

For their ads Cessna often would doll up their tired, oft-modified engineering prototype mules. An example was N34266, which was painted in turn as the 1962 base 182, the '62 Skylane, the '63 Skylane, and with redesigned cabin windows, the '64 Skylane.

The 1978 Grumman-American Tiger? Not a Tiger at all; it's a Cheetah with Tiger paint and logos.

Sales brochure photos are not always reliable guides for spotting a particular year or model.
Wow, Jeff, I had no idea. Seriously. Thanks for the education. :)
 
Wow, Jeff, I had no idea. Seriously. Thanks for the education. :)
Back in 1963-64 one might be forgiven for wondering if every Cessna 172 in the world were registered N5414E ...

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Then there was N1296. It started out as a 1957 Cessna 182 that was pulled off the line to use as a prototype for a proposed retractable. It went through multiple paint jobs and vertical tail designs, and even model numbers. It was initially called "Model 185", before the company settled on "Model 210". N1296 was the show plane for the 1960 and 1961 Cessna 210 ads and brochures.

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