Page 24 - Volume 15 Number 5

it was originally named – was being designed, a lot of improvements were envisioned from its predecessors: More power to yield faster airspeeds and better rates of climb, a wider center section to provide room for the larger-diameter propellers and to move the propeller arc further away from the fuselage for less noise, more pressurization differential to allow the cabin altitude to be lower at higher cruise altitudes ... and on and on.
When the design team realized that an additional 170 SHP (850 SHP for the 200 versus 680 SHP for the A100) was going to be placed 25
The rudder boost system was not designed to act alone during loss of engine power. You must also supply rudder pedal force.
inches further from the airplane’s centerline, concerns arose about rudder force and effectiveness. As I have related in the “The King Air Book – Volume II,” in the chapter about the T-Tail design, the primary reason for going with that major change of the empennage was to maximize rudder effectiveness when it was most needed ... at slow speeds, including VMCA .
A very pleasant event that is forever seared into my brain’s memory bank occurred in 1973 at the Beechcraft factory. Bud Francis, chief experimental test pilot for the 200 program, gave me (as I prepared
to be the first factory 200 instructor) a one-on-one lesson about the new rudder boost system. He used chalk on a blackboard to help illustrate what the test program had shown and the changes that this new system brought about. Although the maximum rudder force during the test program remained below the FAA limit, it only missed it by 3 pounds ... 147 pounds required of the 150 pounds limit! Believing that King Airs should retain their “easy to fly” reputation (and, I speculate, anticipating the more- powerful model 300 to come), the decision was made to make the newly-designed rudder boost system standard equipment on the model 200-series. However, the KOEL (Kinds of Operation Equipment List) in the POH – as well as the MMEL (Master Minimum Equipment List) – show that rudder boost is never a required flight control ... in the 200-series.
How much rudder force should the boost system apply? Bud explained that the choice was made that it
Cessna Piston Twins
22 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
JUNE 2021