Page 28 - Volume 15 Number 6

scarlet red, the sleek, single-seat ship easily won the Thompson Cup at the National Air Races that year, soundly defeating the best the U.S. Army and Navy, as well as worthy commercial adversaries, could muster.
Then in 1932, amid a devastating economic depression that had crippled commercial aviation in America, he and Olive Ann dared to risk everything they had gained in aviation to co-found the Beech Aircraft Company and locate it (of all places!) in a leased building of the defunct Cessna Aircraft Company. Sales of the company’s radical Model 17R cabin biplane, designed and engineered by associate Ted Wells, totaled zero for the first two years of the Beechcraft organization. Cash and operating capital were nearly exhausted, but Walter hung on and never gave up. By 1934 the infant
company was slowly gaining a solid financial footing and the future looked promising.
From a historical and technical viewpoint, it is reasonable to con- clude that the Model 17 Staggerwing resembled the Model 90 King Air in that both airplanes represented a break with the past. In its own unique way, each airplane had ad- vanced that state-of-the-art in com- mercial aviation and pointed toward the future.
Such was the determination of Walter H. Beech – a determination to succeed despite tremendous odds that made him a legend in his own time. The King Air carried on that tradition.
Following the Model 90’s formal introduction in 1964, the company had built 112 airplanes and had im- plemented a global product support
program designed to keep the new Beechcraft flying. As with any new Beechcraft airplane, owners and pilots were encouraged to share their opinions of the aircraft and offer suggestions regarding how the Model 90 could be improved. In parallel with customer input, company pilots and engineers were continually evaluating every aspect of the King Air’s “personality.”
They eventually created a list of changes that, combined with those from owners and operators, were aimed at taking the Model 90 to the next level in terms of overall value for the dollar. Although corporate pilots were enthusiastic about the ease of operating the airplane’s Pratt & Whitney PT6A-6 turboprop engines, these powerplants lacked reversing propellers that would significantly decrease landing distances – an important consideration since many
26 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MAY 2021