Beech Aircraft

Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas, the aviation manufacturer whose surplus wartime aluminium capacity became the industrial base for Fuller's Dymaxion dwelling.

Fuller partnered with Beech in Wichita, Kansas for the 1945 Dymaxion dwelling prototypes, and signed a two-year research contract with the company, which held an abundance of aluminium in the aftermath of the Second World War. The house that resulted weighed under 3 tons and was made from the aluminium-copper alloys used in wartime aircraft — an aircraft factory's materials and tolerances applied to housing.

Beech also took 1,000 shares in Fuller Houses, Inc., the company formed to bring the dwelling to market. The Wichita prototype work ran from 1944 to 1946.

Role in Fuller's world

Beech Aircraft is where Fuller's "do more with less" met an actual production line. The partnership is the strongest evidence for his claim that housing should be built by the aviation industry rather than the building trades — and its failure to reach manufacture is the strongest evidence against it.

See Also

• Fuller Houses, Inc. — the venture Beech held shares in
• Wichita House — the dwelling built with Beech's materials and plant

Sources

• Fuller inventions — Chronofile, bathroom, Wichita — the 1945 partnership, weight and alloys, and Beech's shareholding
• Architecture Classics: The Dymaxion House — the two-year research contract and postwar aluminium surplus
• Fuller places research — the 1944–46 Wichita prototype period