Page 19 - May 2022

King Air B100 with propeller and winglet modifications.
fence on each side midway out between the nacelle and tip. (Later, the F90 would use the same wing shape and size but without the stall fences.)
To accommodate the 15 passengers, the 99’s fuselage is quite long and the tail needed to be designed to provide enough control and trim authority to handle a much larger CG envelope. Instead of trim tabs on the elevators, Beech went with a movable horizontal stabilizer ... like that used on a Piper Cub or Cessna 180, for example. However, unlike the Cub and Skywagon, the stabilizer on the 99- and 100-series was so big that moving the jackscrew manually proved to be too difficult. Instead, a system was designed and certified that included both an electric Main and electric Standby trim motor that operate the stabilizer through a clutch/ gearbox arrangement such that if one motor fails the other can still function. When one first flies a 100, it is a bit disconcerting to reach for the elevator trim wheel and find it missing! Normal trimming is accomplished through the use of dual switches on the outboard grip of the pilot’s or co-pilot’s control wheel. Standby trimming is achieved by use of two switches on the
MAY 2022
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 17