Aircraft model
BEECH A45 (T-34A)
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Beech Model 45 is the T-34 Mentor, a tandem two-seat military primary trainer built on Bonanza wings and landing gear with a new fuselage and a sliding canopy. Thousands were built for the US Air Force and Navy and for export, and surplus aircraft have been on the civil register for decades.
It is bought for the experience: a real military trainer with excellent visibility, aerobatic capability and handling that owners describe as the best thing Beech ever built. The costs are those of a warbird rather than a light aircraft — a surplus airframe with a military maintenance history, structural inspections including a well-known wing spar airworthiness directive arising from in-flight failures during aerobatics, and an insurance market that treats it as a specialist type. Verify the spar AD status before anything else.
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- BEECH A45 (T-34A)
What it is
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Continental O-470-13 |
| Horsepower | 225 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | military-surplus |
| Production start | 1953 |
| Production end | 1958 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 150 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 650 nm |
| Service ceiling | 20,000 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,230 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 52 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 1,400 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 1,300 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 2 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 895 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 595 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 2,950 lb |
| Empty weight | 2,055 lb |
| Usable fuel | 50 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 12.6 gal/h |
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $225,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $495,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,500 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $40,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $55,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 34 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 5 |
| Median year built | 1955.5 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 0 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | — |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | — |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 0 |
| Transfers per 100 active | — |
| Airworthiness directives | 8 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | none |
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, piston, 1 engine, 1-2 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | —1 |
| Severity | —2 |
| Access | 1 of 103 |
| Support | 7.3 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 2.1 of 105 |
These record scores treat BEECH A45 (T-34A) as one design with the same aircraft registered under other names: it includes 162 aircraft registered as BEECH A45; includes 1 aircraft registered under BEECH-PARKS; includes the record of aircraft once registered under BEECH-STAFFORD. Prices are not combined.
- Accident record: class median 29.1 · 174 models in class.
- Severity: class median 9.09.
- Access: class median 974.
- Support: class median 81.
- Liquidity: class median 20.47.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories.