Page 27 - Nov24

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 2,000
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.
th
In addition to celebrating the delivery of the 2,000th King Air, Beechcraft management and workers also welcomed the 25th anniversary of the Model 35 Bonanza. The Bonanza had served as the company’s single-engine, piston- powered high-performance flagship since 1947. Beech marketing officials honored the Bonanza’s achievement by building a special edition V35B and flying it around the nation on a tour. Registered appropriately as N25B, the airplane heralded the peak of the Model 35’s popularity. Unfortunately, 10 years later, changes in the general aviation marketplace eventually led Beechcraft management to terminate production of the legendary V-tail Bonanza after more than 10,000 of the classic airplanes had been built.
By the early 1970s, the Model 90 series had become to the corporate world what the 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 on 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. The engines, however, were each flat-rated at 550 shp. Cabin pressurization remained at 4.6 pounds per square inch providing passengers and cockpit crewmembers with a comfortable environment.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued Beech Aircraft Corporation Type Certificate 3A20 for the E90 on April 13, 1972, and during that first year of E90 production, the Wichita factory built 22 airplanes. That number,
however, swelled to more than 340 by 1981 when production shifted to the Model C90-1. The last E90 to roll off the assembly line was serial number LJ-347.
If Beechcraft management had learned one lesson since the company’s inception in 1932, it was the realization that product development was essential to survival in a capricious marketplace that was rife with competition. During the past 50 years, Beechcraft engineers had become highly proficient at blending the advantages of one airplane with those of another to create a “new” product.
For example, the turbine-powered Model 65-90 was an outgrowth of the Queen Air series, just as the Model 50 Twin Bonanza had provided a basic platform for the development of the Model 65. Taking that practice one step further in the late 1960s, Beech Aircraft Corporation combined the lengthened fuselage and pressurized cabin of the Model 100 King Air with a new, wider wing center section and unleashed the Model 200 Super King Air into the business aviation marketplace. The airplane’s spacious cabin and signature T-tail empennage configuration – the first for a Beechcraft airplane – pushed Beech Aircraft’s pursuit of perfection to new heights.
Continuing the company’s highly successful “cookbook” approach to creating new products, in 1978 engineers combined the T-tail design of the Super King Air with the fuselage and wings of the Model E90. The result was designated the F90 King Air and the pre-production prototype, serial number LA-1, made its first flight on Jan. 16, 1978, under the command of company test pilot Marv Pratt. The FAA issued Type Certificate A31CE to the F90 on May 18, 1979.
The F90’s market niche would be as a step-up airplane from the E90, and the latest King Air was well equipped to induce corporate aviation to take
King Air, a Model 200, took to the skies. Sales remained strong as did
NOVEMBER 2024
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 25