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A World War II airplane that packed the ramp at Baxter County Airport three years ago is coming back to Midway this weekend.
“Sweet Pea,” a restored Beechcraft Model 18, is part of the lineup for the first Crosswind Classic on Saturday, Aug. 29. Owners Ken and Lorraine Morris are flying the Twin Beech down from the Chicago area. This time the airplane will carry passengers over the Twin Lakes for a $75 donation.
The Morrises last brought the plane to Mountain Home in August 2023 for National Aviation Day. It was the star of that event, drawing a steady line of people who wanted a look inside a piece of flying history.
Sweet Pea was built as an AT-7A, a navigation trainer version of the Model 18. According to the Morrises, only seven were made. The plane was delivered on floats to Alaska in April 1942 and carried the serial number 41-121161.
She moved to Fargo, North Dakota, in 1952 and went back to Beechcraft for a rebuild two years later. That overhaul gave her a new fuselage, a new wing center section, new engines and a new serial number. She then flew out of bases in Georgia and North Carolina before the military parked her.
The plane stayed in service with the U.S. military until 1960. It was later donated to Southern Illinois University, where the Morrises went to school. The university flew it as an executive and charter plane for 11 years.
Sweet Pea left the school in 1971 and spent the next 25 years hauling business travelers and private owners. A major restoration in 1997 gave the plane the name it still carries. She has never worked as a freighter.
The Morrises found her in 2012, sitting outside on Long Island. She had not flown or been maintained in three years.
“We said, if we’re going to spend that kind of money, we want a Twin Beech instead,” Lorraine Morris told the Observer in 2023. “So, we went on the hunt, and found this about 10 years ago. Got it home and had to fix the engines.”
The interior was moldy and full of problems, she said. The couple rebuilt the whole airplane in about six months. It has since won awards for both its airframe and its interior.
Both Morrises are career airline pilots who have flown for Delta, Northwest and United. They keep the plane at Poplar Grove Airport outside Chicago and restore classic aircraft there. Ken Morris flew the same model daily years ago for a commuter airline out of Jonesboro.
He describes the Twin Beech as quick and light in the air but stubborn on the ground, thanks to its tailwheel. Steering it on pavement, he said, is like pushing a shopping cart backward. The plane holds 250 gallons of fuel and burns roughly 50 gallons an hour.
“I love the airplane and always have loved it,” Ken Morris said in 2023. “It’s kind of a chance of a lifetime to actually own them. It doesn’t fly all that much, but this kind of thing is what I love to do.”
Sweet Pea will not be the only warbird on the ramp Saturday. Rich Dawe is bringing an MK5 BAC Jet Provost, a British military trainer, for the static display.
The Crosswind Classic runs from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the airport on state Highway 126, about five miles northwest of Mountain Home. Admission and parking are free. Ride tickets are limited and sold first come, first served.
The rest of the day is built around the airplanes. There is a car show, an aviation poker run, a vendor mall, food trucks, live music from Ozark Thunder and a kids zone with four inflatables. EAA Chapter 775 opens the morning with a coffee and doughnuts fly-in for area pilots.
Visitors will vote for their favorite car and favorite airplane, with People’s Choice awards handed out at the end of the show. Door prizes include restaurant gift certificates, an electric chainsaw and dyno tuner sessions. Winners must be present.
Organizers say the point is to show off the county-owned field as something residents can actually walk onto and use.
The event lands during a busy stretch for the airport. More than $2.5 million has gone into the field over roughly the past three years, much of it toward new hangars meant to draw aviation businesses. The airport is now looking at a runway expansion that would make it more marketable for commuter service.
Federal Aviation Administration figures list 74 aircraft based at the field and about 11,500 takeoffs and landings there in 2024.
Information and registration go through event directors Bill Holland at (405) 626-1386, Taylor Carmichael at (870) 520-0456 and Rylen Wynn at (417) 989-1021. More is posted at flybpk.com/crosswindclassic.
