The Beech 95 Travelair is a low-wing four/five-seats twin-engine piston aircraft with a tricycle retractable landing gear.
Esentially a scaled down Model 50 Twin Bonanza with the cabin of the Model 35 bonanza married to the Model 45 Mentor wings,
tail and undercarriage, and an entirely new fuselage the Model 95 prototype N395B (s/n TD-1) was first flown on
6 August 1956. Although developed and initially marketed as the Badger, a 1956 letter from the United States Air Force
notified Beechcraft that the name had been previously chosen as a reporting name for the Soviet Tupolev Tu-16 bomber;
therefore, Beechcraft elected to reuse the Travel Air name, which came from the predecessor company to Beechcraft, the
Travel Air Manufacturing Company. The Travel Air was produced from 1957 to 1968. Later models were delivered with fuel
injected versions of the original engine. In 1960, Beech Aircraft Corporation introduced in the Model 95-55 Baron as a
development of the Model 95 Travel Air with swept tail, more powerful engines with streamlined engine cowlings, etc.
720 Beech Travelair's of all variants were built. On 8 February 1980, the Beech Aircraft
Corporation became a subsidiary of the Raytheon Company, the aircraft
were therefore also known as Raytheon Beech. In 2006, Raytheon sold
Raytheon Aircraft to Goldman Sachs creating Hawker Beechcraft. The entry
into bankruptcy of Hawker Beechcraft on 3 May 2012 ended with its
emergence on 16 February 2013 as a new entity: Beechcraft Corporation. The ICAO
Aircraft Type Designator for the Beech 95 Travelair is BE95
The 1957-built Beech 95 Travelair s/n TD-15 was operated in Anchorage, Alaska, In 1992, the aircraft was sold to Joop Rauwers,
the owner of Buddy Dive Resort, and flown to its new homebase Bonaire. However owned by the Dutchman Joep Rauwers, and based at
Bonaire and later at Flugplatz Norhorn-Lingen the aircraft is registered in the USA.
To make this possible the aircaft was registered with Buddy Managemant, Anchorage, Alaska, and since 9 April 2011, with Southern
Aircraft Consultancy Inc. Trustee in the US as owner. This type of construction is often used for enabling non-US Citizens to obtain "N"
registration of an aircraft with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for aircraft operating principally outside the United States.
In 1999, the aircraft was disassembled and shipped to the Netherlands in 2002. Major maintenance and restoration of the aircraft lasted until 2004.
As part of the restoration, the aircraft was painted in BAF 7174121 colours, with BAF standing for Bonaire Air Force, a reference to JR's former
residence. After this restoration, the aircraft was flown from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol via Lelystad Airport to its new home Flugplatz Nordhorn Lingen (EDWN).
On 1 September 2024, the 1957-built Beech 95 Travelair N195JR was seen at Flugplatz Leer-Papenburg (EDWF) in Bonaire Air Force 7174121 colors.
