Page 29 - Volume 15 Number 5

The external appearance of the E90 King Air was es- sentially identical to the C90, but the latest addition to the Beechcraft royal family cruised at a higher airspeed and could climb to more than 27,000 feet. A total of 347 airplanes were built. (Special Collections and University Archives, Wichita State University Libraries)
As the decade of the 1970s arrived, the Beech Aircraft Corporation had built more than 1,300 King Air business and military airplanes since the introduction of the Model 90 in 1964. Of these, the 1,000th King Air had been delivered in 1972 and eight years later in 1980 the 2,000th King Air, a Model 200, took to the skies. Sales remained strong as did the company’s bottom line thanks to guidance provided through the steady hand of CEO Olive Ann Beech, President Frank E. Hedrick and the board of directors.
By the early 1970s, the Model 90 series had become to the corporate world what the Beechcraft Bonanza had become to the private pilot – the best value for the money – and in 1972 Beechcraft engineers unveiled plans for yet another upgraded version of the venerable King Air. Designated as the Model E90, the airplane benefited from an increase in cruise speed to 285 mph at an altitude of 16,000 feet and a higher service ceiling of 27,620 feet.
First flown Jan. 18, 1972, the E90 could fly up to 1,870 statute miles at
its maximum range power setting. Although outwardly the E90 appeared to be a “clone” of the Model C90 upon which it was based, the new King Air sported Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A- 28 turboprop engines each developing 680 shaft horsepower (shp). The engines, however, were each flat-rated at 550 shp. Cabin pressurization remained at 4.6 pounds per square inch (psid) providing passengers and cockpit crewmembers with a comfortable environment.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued Beech Aircraft Corporation
JUNE 2021
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 27