In its ongoing quest to develop improved versions of the highly successful King Air platform, Beech Aircraft Corporation once again dipped into its “recipe” book and blended the best of the Model 90 and the Model 99 to create the Model 100 – flagship of the Beechcraft fleet.
By the late 1960s, Olive Ann Beech had come a long way from the “Roarin’ Twenties” of the Travel Air Company. In those halcyon days, the open-cockpit biplane was state-of-the-art and no respectable lady could go “aviating” without a leather helmet, bearskin flying suit and a pair of goggles. “Mr. Beech’s idea of flying was to take me up and turn the airplane upside down,” Mrs. Beech once remarked to the author with a wry grin. She enjoyed flying but never harbored a desire to become an aviatrix in her own right – she left that to the likes of Amelia Earhart, Ruth Elder and Louise McPhetridge von Thaden.
It was, in fact, Ms. Thaden who in 1936 was encouraged by Mrs. Beech to compete in the prestigious Bendix race from New York to Los Angeles – an all-out speed event that had been dominated by male pilots until women were allowed to compete that year. Flying with co-pilot Blanche Noyes in a nearly stock Model C17R powered by an aging Wright radial engine, the two ladies beat the best that men (and other women pilots) had to offer and collected a handsome sum for their efforts, much to the delight of Mrs. Beech.
But the Kansas girl hired by Clyde V. Cessna in 1925 to run Travel Air’s front office had, over the previous 40 years, witnessed the constant evolution of aviation from barnstorming to a billion-dollar business that held tremendous potential for future growth.
One may be asking, “What does all of that have to do with the Model 100 King Air?” Although the venerable C17R pales in comparison to the modern, sleek and comfortable King Air, the story serves to underscore the inevitable quest of one aircraft company to build the best business airplanes money could buy. Olive Ann Beech believed in that creed with the same gusto as that of her husband, Walter H. Beech. Working together with a few hand-picked associates from the Depression-wrecked Travel Air Company, early in 1932 they co-founded the Beech Aircraft Company in a vacant building leased from the equally defunct Cessna Aircraft Company once led by Walter’s longtime friend, Clyde Cessna. Always choosing his words carefully, Mr. Cessna once told the press that, “Speed is the only reason for flying.” He was, of course, correct and that mandate remained at the forefront of business aircraft development throughout the next 40 years. As the decade of the ‘70s approached, that timeless fact was still uppermost in the minds of Beech Aircraft engineers as they worked to develop a worthy successor to the Model 90 King Air. The result was hailed as the next logical step up the King Air ladder for customers who had outgrown their Model 90.
Designated the Model 100, the next-generation Beechcraft cabin was designed to accommodate up to 13 people in high-density configuration. In addition, the new airplane borrowed the wings and electrically-trimmed horizontal stabilizer system from the Model 99. These were mated to a lengthened fuselage of the same cross-section as that of the Model C90. Two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-28 engines, each rated at
680 shp for takeoff and 620 shp for cruise, turned four-blade, constant-speed, fully-reversible propellers that gave the Model 100 a maximum cruise speed of 287 mph – a significant increase over the C90’s 253 mph.
More speed, however, was not the Model 100’s only strongpoint – with main fuel tanks capable of holding up to 388 gallons of turbine fuel and optional auxiliary tanks with a capacity of 82 gallons, the latest Beechcraft could fly nearly 1,500 statute miles, while keeping cabin occupants comfortable at high altitudes thanks to its bleed air pressurization system that was limited to
4.7 pounds per square inch (psid). Another key improvement was the airplane’s maximum gross weight of 10,600 pounds – 1,000 pounds more than the C90.
Maiden flight of the prototype Model 100 occurred March 17, 1969, followed by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Type Certification July 24 of that year. Beechcrafters built 89 Model 100s in the first two years of production that began in 1969 and ended in 1970. Lessons learned from customers during that time led to the introduction for the 1971 model year of the upgraded A100. First flown March 20, 1971, the latest King Air to emerge from the drawing boards was essentially identical to its predecessor, but it did boast a series of improvements. These included a 900-pound increase in maximum takeoff weight to 11,500 pounds and fuel capacity was increased to allow an additional 96 gallons of fuel to be carried, stretching maximum range to more than 1,500 statute miles.
Performance remained similar to the Model 100 with a maximum cruise speed of 271 mph at an altitude of 21,000 feet, and a service ceiling of 24,850 feet. Other minor changes included four-blade propellers with reduced span to increase ground clearance during taxi and landing. The FAA issued the A100 an amended Type Certificate May 7, 1971, and production continued until 1979 after 159 airplanes had been built. In addition to commercial sales of the A100, the U.S. Army, a longtime operator of King Airs modified for military missions, ordered five A100s in 1971 to serve as VIP and utility transports. Bearing the designation U-21F, all five were delivered in 1971. Except for certain Army equipment, the airplanes were identical to the commercial version.
The final variant of the Model 100 was the B100 King Air that made its initial flight March 20, 1975, from Beech Field in Wichita, Kansas. The B100’s major departure from the A100 was its Garrett AiResearch TPE-331-6-251B/252 turboprop engines that featured a fixed shaft design instead of the PT6A-28’s reverse-flow, free-turbine configuration. Installing Garrett’s engine on a King Air airframe was not an epiphany. As early as 1972, Beech Aircraft Corporation’s experimental department had conducted flight tests of a company-owned King Air equipped with TPE-331 engines. That initiative was part of an in-house engineering feasibility study aimed at determining compatibility of the powerplants with the King Air airframe.
The engines, each rated at 840 shp but flat-rated to 715 shp, still propelled the B100 to a maximum cruising speed of 306 mph – more than
30 mph faster than its A100 stable mate. Other than its advantage in speed, the B100’s range (1,501 statute miles) and pressurization system were about equal to those of the PT6A-powered A100.
Throughout the 1970s and into the early 1980s, demand for the A100 and B100 continued and both versions maintained their popularity with the business aviation community. When production was terminated, Beech Aircraft had manufactured 246 A100s and 137 B100s across a 14-year span that ended in 1983. The time had come, however, for the 100-series airplanes to pass the crown to the company’s new flagship, the Model 200 Super King Air – an airplane that would set not only a new standard for cabin-class, turboprop business airplanes, but lift the company that built it to new heights of success.