Over the years there has been talk about needing a Beechcraft King Air Hall of Fame to honor those who developed the world’s bestselling business turboprop and those who continue to support the legion of passionate pilots and operators. King Air B200 owner John Glidewell made it a reality by persisting and convincing King Air Academy’s Kevin Carson to get the ball rolling. Kevin reached out to those he thought would have knowledge of the people behind the King Air brand along with owner/operators to give their perspective of who was worthy of recognition.
Members of the selection committee:
Kim Blonigen: As editor of the King Air magazine, I am responsible for the monthly content of the publication. I also have deep roots with Beechcraft as I worked for the company for 13 years in various marketing roles, working my way up to managing all of the company’s customer newsletters and magazine.
Kevin Carson: Kevin operates the King Air Academy training center located in Phoenix, Arizona, and is also the founder of the King Air Gathering. He is often accused of being a Beechcraft zealot, as he has owned and/or flown almost every different model of Bonanza, Baron and King Air manufactured. Of special interest, Kevin has owned and flown his T-34 for over 20 years.
Bill Crutchfield: Bill is CEO and founder of Crutchfield Corporation, one of the nation’s largest online retailers of consumer electronics products. Bill has owned and operated his King Air C90B for over 25 years; he has accumulated 6,000 flight hours between business and recreational flying. He also holds the FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilots Award.
Carl Davis: A pilot, A&P mechanic and FAA 145 accountable manger, Carl owns King Air Nation which specializes in selling King Air parts, engines and aircraft. This year Carl and his company have graciously taken over the planning and management of the King Air Gathering.
John Glidewell: A devoted King Air owner, John is president and owner of Sunset Logistics which operates approximately 500 trucks throughout Texas. He has flown his B200 for 11 years and before it, he owned and operated a model E90. He has a total of over 9,000 flight hours with over 6,000 in King Airs. When time is available, he enjoys supporting the King Air educational support groups.
Chip McClure: The president of Jet Acquisitions, Chip is a 20-plus-year veteran of aviation and has found his professional niche helping buyers purchase aircraft. Chip and his wife Amy started the company in 2015 with a focus on King Airs and have expanded to include a wide variety of current production turboprops and jets.
We selected Bill as the chair of the selection committee since he had been on selection committees for various business awards as well as being the recipient of many. The first thing the committee decided was the selection criteria for the Hall of Fame recipients. They needed to meet one of two criteria:
- Would the King Air have ever been made without the recipient?
- And/or would the King Air have become the civilian aircraft with the longest production run in history without the recipient?
The team then took some time to research, ask those they knew who worked at Beech through the years and followed leads to come up with a long list of potential inductees. We discussed each one, made sure they fit our criteria and then narrowed down the list. We decided since this was the first class of the Hall of Fame that we needed to address those who would receive it posthumously, as it has been almost 60 years since the King Air was introduced.
Posthumous Recipients
In hindsight, it’s easy to believe that the development of a turboprop executive aircraft was a very logical decision, however, it wasn’t in the early 1960s. It was actually counterintuitive considering what was happening in the general aviation industry at the time. From 1961-1963, Lockheed’s JetStar was introduced and the first flight of Hawker Siddeley’s DH125, North American’s Sabreliner, the Lear 23 and Falcon 20 were recorded. The conventional wisdom would have been to develop a pure jet aircraft, but the King Air leaders at Beechcraft did just the opposite. They identified the weaknesses in the emerging jet aircraft, one being the turbojet engines were not only high-priced, but also had high fuel consumption and were noisy. Beechcraft decided to develop a turboprop, executive aircraft known as the King Air 90.
In honoring these counterintuitive leaders, the inaugural posthumous recipients are:
Olive Ann Beech
The most obvious nominee was the CEO of Beech Aircraft at the time the King Air was developed. Mrs. Beech not only approved of but advocated for the King Air 90, which entered service in 1964.
In 1950, after Walter passed away, Mrs. Beech assumed complete control of the company at a time when women weren’t considered for company executive positions. CEOs know that it takes guts to make risky business decisions and she could have played it safe. Developing a turboprop, executive airplane when her competitors were developing jet aircraft was very risky; some would argue that it was even dumb.
She led the company for 30 years and continued to support the King Air, backing the development of the many variations of Beech Aircraft’s popular turboprop. In 1980, the company was sold to Raytheon and Mrs. Beech retired in 1982. She died at the age of 89 in 1993, but not without an abundance of accolades including:
- Being named one of the 10 Highest Ranking Women in Business by Fortune magazine
- Receiving the Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy in 1980
- Induction into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1981, the American National Business Hall of Fame in 1983 and the Kansas Business Hall of Fame in 1986
LeRoy Clay
Mr. Clay was an early employee of Beech Aircraft, starting before World War II. He has been quoted as saying, “Let’s take the Model 88 (Queen Air) and put a turboprop on it.” In 1969, he became the chief project engineer for the new King Air 200 and was the one who came up with the idea of using a T-tail. He was especially proud that all five branches of the U.S. military flew various models of King Airs. Over his career, Mr. Clay was involved in every Beech turboprop aircraft including all of the King Airs, the 1900 airliner and the Starship. He retired as the vice president of engineering in 1984 after 45 years of service. (Included in group photo, opposite page)
Bud Francis
Mr. Francis became a Beechcrafter in 1965 after earning a degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Kansas and serving a four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force. Over a span of 32 years that he worked for the company, he spent many as the chief of Experimental Flight Test and test flew virtually every airplane that Beech developed during his tenure. Of special note, he made the very first flights of the Model 200 Super King Air in October 1972, Model 300 Super King Air in October 1981 and the Model 350 Super King Air in September 1988. (Included in group photo, opposite page)
Tom Gillespie
Mr. Gillespie, who served as a marine aviator in World War II and the Korean War, served many roles at Beech Aircraft. Starting as a test pilot and serving in public relations and marketing roles, Mr. Gillespie was very much the marketing influence and a prominent advocate of the King Air. According to many, he is credited with the vision of the turboprop future when other Beech executives wanted to scrap the King Air before it was even produced.
Pratt and Whitney’s PT6 Design Team
There is no doubt that a tremendous amount of the credit for the King Air’s success must be attributed to Pratt & Whitney Canada. Developing the PT6 engine was another project that was a huge gamble in time and money. In an effort to become Canada’s prime engine company by focusing on a small gas turbine engine, Pratt & Whitney Canada’s President Ronald Riley ordered engineering manager Dick Guthrie to hire a team of gas turbine specialists to design what would later become the PT6. The new engine first flew in May 1961 and followed on into King Air production and service entry in 1964.
For this amazing accomplishment, posthumous Hall of Fame awards go to Gordon Hardy, Jim Rankin, Fernand Desrochers, Fred Glasspoole, Ken Elsworth, Allan Newland, Pete Peterson, Hugh Lanshur, Jean-Pierre Beauregard, Elvie Smith, Dick Guthrie and Thor Stephenson.
Living Recipients
During the King Air Gathering in May, the following people were personally presented with a King Air Hall of Fame inductee award, which were mounted blades of an authentic King Air propeller.
Dean Benedict
Having maintained King Airs for over 47 years, Mr. Benedict started working at a Beechcraft service center straight out of A&P school. He first worked on early King Air 90 models and moved on to the 200, B200 and subsequent models. He worked his way up to facility manager, but customers never let him stray too far from their aircraft. After 10 years he left to be the Director of Maintenance for a corporate flight department that included King Airs and during that time his Beechcraft customers would call him during evenings and weekends for maintenance advice. Mr. Benedict finally opened his own maintenance shop, Honest Air Inc., located in Henderson, Nevada, which quickly became the place to take your King Air for maintenance. After a lease buyout, Honest Air closed in March 2016 and Mr. Benedict now consults King Air owners, pilots, managers and mechanics through BeechMedic, LLC. He also is the author of the regular column “Maintenance Tips” in King Air magazine.
Don Cary
After the King Air was introduced, the company needed to prepare for a new era of pilots and more powerful aircraft. Mr. Cary was hired in 1966 by Beech Aircraft as a King Air training specialist when the A-90 had just been introduced. He taught ground training and checked out customer pilots for over two years and then transitioned to manager of the Customer Training Program. He eventually moved up to director of Customer Support, which involved Beech’s training program, parts support, technical support and the technical publications department. Don retired from the company 37 years later where his last position was vice president of Customer Relations.
Tom Clements
Mr. Clements has been flying and instructing in King Airs for more than 50 years, beginning his career at the Beech Aircraft Training Center in 1972 and through his own company, Flight Review, which he started in 1979. He has over 15,000 hours in King Air aircraft and is type-rated in the King Air 300 and Beechcraft 1900 models. He is also author of the The King Air Book and The King Air Book Volume II, as well as a regular contributor with his own column “Ask the Expert” for King Air magazine. He also actively mentors the instructors at King Air Academy in Phoenix, Arizona.
James Raisbeck*
Mr. Raisbeck used his aeronautical engineering degree and entrepreneurial spirit to develop a variety of performance enhancing modification systems for production aircraft including the King Air. More than 64% of the King Airs in operation today have at least one Raisbeck Engineering modification. Several of Raisbeck’s products have also been incorporated into the production line including Dual Aft Body Strakes and Nacelle Wing Lockers on the King Air 350/360, Ram Air Recovery System on the King Air 250/260 and propellers on the King Air C90.
There are many more people who had a hand in making the King Air the bestselling business turboprop family in the world. This is just the beginning of those who will be honored and inducted into the King Air Hall of Fame … and it’s long past overdue.
Thanks to Kevin Carson for sharing his research.
*The honorees were selected to be presented at the 2020 King Air Gathering which was canceled due to the pandemic as well as in 2021. Mr. Raisbeck unfortunately passed away before we could personally present him with this well-deserved honor.