Page 30 - April 2022

In 1964 the company began production of the Beechcraft Model 65-90 King Air that revolutionized business aviation by offering a turbine-powered, pressurized airplane that possessed speed, comfort and economy of operation at an affordable price. (Textron Aviation)
initial deliveries in 1990. That year a military version of the 400A designated 400T was chosen by the U.S. Air Force to instruct pilots for the service’s Tanker Transport Training System program. The first of 180 T1-A “Jayhawk” jets were delivered in January 1992 and the fleet continues in service as of 2022.
In addition, Hawker Beechcraft built Beechcraft jets beginning in 2006 and ending in 2013, including the entry-level Premier 1 and the super mid-size cabin Hawker 4000. The Premier 1/1A was built from 2001-2012 and totaled 292 airplanes, whereas the larger Hawker 4000 totaled 73 units before production ended in 2013.
A major misstep by the company occurred in the 1980s when officials unveiled the radical Beechcraft Model 2000 “Starship.” Unlike any Beechcraft ever designed, the Starship’s airframe was manufactured from graphite-epoxy and Nomex fiber technology.
Olive Ann Beech posed with her personal Beechcraft Model A100 King Air at the factory in Wichita, Kansas. She has been acknowledged worldwide as the “First Lady of Aviation” and an astute business woman who led the Beech Aircraft Corporation for more than 30 years after the death of Walter Herschel Beech in November 1950. (Courtesy Mary Lynn Oliver)
C90 appeared in 1971. The Model 100/A100 and B100 King Air featured a larger cabin and were offered with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-28 or Garrett AiResearch TPE-331 turboprop powerplants.
Beech Aircraft Corporation’s crowning achievement of the 1970s was introducing the Model 200 Super King Air that first flew in October 1972. Equipped with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-41 engines rated at 850 SHP and a T-tail empennage, the Super King Air soon established itself as the company’s flagship, followed in the next few years by the introduction of the B200, 300, 350 and 360 (currently in production).
In 1986 Beech Aircraft Corporation acquired rights to the Mitsubishi Diamond-series executive jet and renamed it the Model 400 “Beechjet.” More than 60 were delivered before the company introduced the improved “Beechjet 400A” that first flew in September 1989, followed by
28 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
APRIL 2022