... Jack Bauman founded his company in California during 1945...
Too true ... but note the correct name spelling -- the Baumann Aircraft Corporation. There was also a Knoxville, TN-based Baumann Aircraft Corp. from 1938-1940 which became the Mercury Aircraft Corp. of Menominee, MI, from 1940-1942. So, Jack B. Baumann had a number of prewar and early WW2 designs as well.
(BTW, I'm working up a Baumann designation list. Does anyone have any details on the Lacy-Baumann glider (NC11539) or Velie radial-powered Baumann-Minsky B (NC18151)?)
Baumann trained at the University of Tennessee before going to work at the Taylor-Young Airplane Company (Taylorcraft, Alliance, OH) where he designed his first aircraft - the B-65 - on the side. After leaving Mercury Aircraft, he went briefly to Frankfort Sailplane Company (Joliet, IL, under Stanley Corcoran) before heading west to Lockheed. AFAIK, the 1945 Baumann Aircraft Corporation was a sideline - perhaps explaining why various sources list this firm's location as Burbank (NASM), North Hollywood (
Flight), Pacoima (an LA neighbourhood), or Santa Barbara (95 miles up the coast)!
... At one point, Piper tried to buy Bauman's design, but he stuck stubbornly to his pusher configuration, so Piper bought a light twin prototype form Stinston and developed that in to the Aztec and Apache lines.
The
Apache story is a bit convoluted. Piper bought the B-250
Brigadier prototype, drawings, and rights in July 1949. The Piper Aircraft Corporation wanted a merger with Baumann Aircraft Corporation (with combined operations at Piper's facility at Lock Haven, PA). As
riggerbob said, Baumann was stuck on the pusher configuration whereas Piper planners favoured a tractor-engined light twin. The merger was cancelled and a compromise approach was agreed.
Under the revised plan, Baumann Aircraft Corporation held the right to further develop the
Brigadier as a pusher but agreed not to pursue a tractor-propeller variant. Meanwhile, Piper would follow their preference and evolve a tractor-engined derivative of the
Brigadier. On 30 August 1949, the Piper designation PA-21 was assigned to this tractor
Brigadier project. However, in meantime, the Stinson Division of Convair had been bought by Piper Aircraft Corporation.
The Stinson buy-out gave Piper access to another light twin design - the rather unimaginitively named Stinson
Twin Stinson. Designed circa 1948 and introduced in 1952, the
Twin Stinson was a low-winged, twin-tailled 4-seater with a fabric-covered fuselage. It was powered by two 135 hp Lycoming O-290-D-2s ... so had slightly more power than the B-250 but was otherwise rather dated. Piper engineers decided that combining features from the planned PA-21 and the
Twin Stinson would give them everything they wanted in a light twin. Accordingly a new semi-monocoque fuselage and single tail fin and rudder were designed based on the B-250/PA-21 airframe. These components were mated to the
Twin Stinson low wings, nacelles, and tricycle undercarriage to produce the first PA-23
Apache with 150 hp Lycoming O-320-A HO4s.