Page 5 - Feb 24
P. 5
LONG LIVE THE KING
Our favorite turboprop family reaches a milestone anniversary
by Editorial Staff
Sixty years ago, on Jan. 20, 1964, Beech Aircraft Corporation pilots flew the first official flight of the conforming prototype of the Beechcraft King Air Model 90. Thousands of spectators – from employees to area residents and local and state dignitaries – watched as the aircraft took off from Beech Field on the east side of Wichita, Kansas.
That aircraft and four others took part in an accelerated flight test program. The King Air achieved type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) four months later on May 27. In July, one of the five flight test aircraft became the first King Air Model 90 delivered to a corporate owner.
Company president Olive Ann Beech personally handed over the keys to John MacNeil, chief pilot for United Aircraft of Canada Ltd. flight operations, the precursor to Pratt & Whitney Canada that had shipped its first production PT6 engines in December 1963, making the new airplane possible.
FEBRUARY 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 3
