Page 24 - August 2023

IN HISTORY
A Tale of Two King Airs
Beech Aircraft Corporation’s versatile Model 300 and Model B300 exemplified the company’s determination to keep a firm grip on the premier cabin-class, turboprop market segment
by Edward Phillips
As the decade of the 1970s came to a close, management at Beech Aircraft Corporation decided the time had come to expand the company’s King Air product line. Although sales of the Model 200 Super King Air and its successor, the Model B200 that entered service in 1981, remained strong, the advent of Special Federal Aviation Regulation 41C (SFAR 41C) provided a window of opportunity for the airframe manufacturer to offer customers a more capable Super King Air.
Under provisions of SFAR 41C, the maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) could be increased beyond the limit of 12,500 pounds as prescribed by FAR Part 23, under which the Model 200 was originally certified in December 1973. Although temporary in nature, the new rule allowed small, propeller-driven airplanes to seek a MTOW of up to 14,000 pounds – a definite advantage that the company could not afford to ignore. The rule, however, also mandated additional airworthiness requirements to warrant the higher MTOW.
As a result, Beech Aircraft engineers began a systems and performance upgrade program for the Model 200 that would transform it into the improved Model 300. In addition to the higher takeoff weight, the latest version of the Super King Air would incorporate a number of significant upgrades. Chief among these were installation
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of more powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-60 turboprop engines each rated at 1,050 shaft horsepower (shp), new exhaust stacks and four-blade propellers.
The powerplants were enclosed in “pitot-type” cowlings that offered improved air intake efficiency at high altitudes compared with the previous cowling design. Other modifications to the basic Model 200 airframe included relocating the wing leading edge forward 5 inches and installing a 3,000-psi hydraulic landing gear system (replacing the electro-mechanical system used in the Model 200 series up until serial number BB-1193), and a multi-bus electrical architecture.
These and other systems modifications were made to Model 200 serial number BB-343 that also had served as the prototype Model B200. With company senior engineering test pilot Bud Francis in the left seat and
AUGUST 2023