A light plane that served the IAF in the War of Independence. The prototype first flew on December 22nd 1945, and it has been continually improved since then, though no major changes have been effected.
The plane was donated to the IAF in 1948 by a South African Jew named Boris Senior, who had been a lieutenant in the South African Air Force. Senior bought two planes and flew them over Africa to Israel, together with another pilot. This was quite a complex task, seeing as the Bonanza's range is less than 1,200 km. One of the planes crashed when it stopped over to refuel in Rhodesia, and Lt. Senior bought another in its place in Luxor, Egypt, supposedly as a pleasure craft that was to fly to Beirut.
The two planes joined the ranks of the First Squadron at Sde Dov, and were fitted for service as light attack planes, after being armed with a 50 kg. bomb payload each. After a short period in which they carried out attack sorties, they were switched over to reconnaissance and communication role.