Page 28 - Volume 11 Number 6

of 437 Model 76 were built, and as of 2016, many are still flying with private owners and flight schools both in the United States and internationally. Prices vary from about $65,000 for a well-equipped airplane to as much as $150,000 for an exceptional example that has been meticulously maintained and has accumulated only 5,000-8,000 hours total time on the airframe.
The company’s other new airplane, the two-place Model 77 Skipper, began life in 1974 as the PD 285 and was intended primarily as an entry-level trainer to be operated by Beech Aero Centers. Originally, the PD 285 was to be powered by a Teledyne Continental four-cylinder, air-cooled, opposed piston engine rated at 100 horsepower, and the engineering proof-of-concept airplane first flew from Beech Field on February 6, 1975, with a conventional empennage design.
As flight testing progressed, however, the flight test airframe was rebuilt with a T-tail empennage, and the Continental powerplant was replaced by an Avco Lycoming, four-cylinder O-235-L2C engine rated at 115 horsepower. The chief reasons for the T-tail stemmed from engineering’s desire that the airplane to possess good pitch control at low airspeeds, as well as excellent recovery from intentional spins. The latter was important because the Skipper was approved for intentional spins (up to six turns) and, in the author’s opinion, was an excellent airplane with which to introduce pilots to intentional spins, and more importantly, how to recover safely (see page 25).
First flight of a pre-production airplane occurred on September 12, 1978, under the control of Vaughn Gregg. The FAA certified the Model 77 in April 1979 and plans called for initial deliveries to begin from the factory in Liberal, Kansas, in May. Beech Aircraft officials had this to say about the new Skipper: “A totally new aircraft combining the best fruits of NASA research and Beechcraft’s long experience, the Model 77 incorporates the T-tail first used so successfully on the Beechcraft Super King Air, and a new GAW-1 wing section originated by NASA following their high-speed, supercritical airfoil studies [the wing was particularly designed for low-speed flight and was well suited to a primary trainer such as the Skipper]. The airplane’s spacious, two-place cabin affords a full 360-degrees of visibility ... and left and right cabin doors [provide] convenient access.”5 Soon after the announcement that the Model 77 would enter production, orders came in from Beech Aero Centers worldwide for a few hundred of the new Beechcraft. The Skipper began equipping Beech Aero Centers in 1979 when 47 airplanes were manufactured.
General specifications for the Model 77 include:
Full-cantilever wing using the GAW-1 airfoil featur- ing a dihedral of six degrees at the root; wingspan 30 feet, total area 129.8 square feet.
Wet-wing cells held a total of 29 gallons of useable fuel.
Tubular spar fabricated from aluminum alloy sheet combined with fiberglass-based adhesive to ensure bonding along all stations of the wing.
Ribs bonded to aluminum ally ribs. 26 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Ailerons stiffened by heavy beading across the span. Electrically-operated flaps, also heavily beaded for
stiffness.
All primary flight controls and flaps were actuated by torque tubes instead of cables under tension.
Lower fuselage structure was bonded together, then built up using aluminum alloy, semi-monocoque construction.
The cantilever T-tail empennage featured a hori- zontal stabilizer with trim tabs on each elevator panel and the rudder.
The two-place Model 77 Skipper became Beech Aircraft’s basic trainer in 1979. Approved for up to six-turn spins, the Skipper was powered by a Lycoming engine rated at 115 horsepower. Only 312 airplanes had been built when pro- duction ended in 1981. (WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES)
The fixed main landing gear was set at a track of 8 feet 3.5 inches and used tubular springs for shock absorption, while the steerable, self-centering nose gear incorporated an air-oil shock absorber and shimmy damper. Toe-operated brakes were standard equipment. The Model 77 was a relatively small airplane – total length from propeller spinner to tail was 24 feet 1.5 inches, height 6 feet 11 inches, and the T-tail spanned 9 feet 10 inches. The Avco Lycoming O-235 engine was a good choice for the trainer and had already earned an excellent reputation for reliability and low operating costs, despite some problems with spark plug fouling caused by 100LL avgas that had come into use by the late 1970s. A Sensenich fixed-pitch, aluminum alloy propeller was standard equipment.
Performance was nominal for a primary trainer. Maximum speed (sea level) was 106 knots and cruising speed was only 105 knots at a power setting of 80 percent. With flaps fully extended, the Model 77 stalled at 47 CAS (calibrated airspeed). Maximum rate of climb was 720 feet per minute and service ceiling was 12,900 feet. Loaded with full fuel (29 gallons useable) and flying at an altitude of 4,500 feet at maximum cruising speed, the Skipper had a range of 327 nautical miles (nm), increasing to 413 nm at 51 percent power setting.6
By 1981, demand for the Model 77 began slipping away as the nation prepared to weather an economic recession that would eventually lead to a severe downturn for the general aviation industry. Production continued at the Liberal factory through 1980 at a rate of about 10 airplanes
JUNE 2017