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It was a celebratory, whirlwind start to what would evolve into a royal family of turboprop-powered, cabin- class airplanes. More than 7,700 King Air models have been delivered to customers around the globe, making it the best-selling business turboprop fam- ily in the world. The fleet has surpassed 64 million flight hours over six decades, with King Airs being flown by individuals, serving corporate and special mission roles, as well as flying for all branches of the U.S. military.
When Textron Aviation, the current manufacturer of Beechcraft products, announced in 2021 it had ceased production of the King Air C90GTx, a version of the 90-series had been manufactured for 57 years. The factory in Wichita continues to produce three variants: the King Air 260, King Air 360 and King Air 360ER.
To commemorate the King Air’s 60th anniversary, we’re sharing some historic photographs as well as a portion of aviation historian Ed Phillips’ account of the arrival of the legendary turboprop. This article by Ed, a former Beechcrafter who has published eight books on aviation history, was first published in 2011.
The King Arrives
In 1961 Olive Ann Beech listened intently to her loyal corps of vice presidents and engineers as they advocated a bold, new step for the company. ...
It centered on marrying the proven and robust airframe of the Model 80 series Queen Air with the gas turbine power of Pratt & Whitney’s new, innovative PT6A turboprop engine. The PT6 was a major design and technical breakthrough in gas turbine technology that promised to deliver significantly more power than was available using reciprocating engines. Although highly reliable, the large displacement, turbocharged engines built by Continental and Lycoming would remain in demand for years to come; they were approaching the limit of their development in terms of horsepower. The New England-based company’s compact, lightweight and powerful PT6A was among the earliest turboprop engines developed specifically for the general aviation segment (which included business aircraft) and delivered 550 shaft horsepower (shp) for takeoff and 500 shp for continuous operation. In addition, it could deliver more than 1,000 pound-feet of torque to the propeller via a simple, reliable planetary-type reduction gearbox.
FEBRUARY 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5