Page 6 - Volume 16 Number 9

The Baby
KING
by LeRoy Cook
If there’s one airplane held high in public esteem as the quintessential propeller-driven business aircraft, it has to be the Beech King Air. And of all the King Air’s lineage, the Model 90 series, and most particularly the C90, will always represent the foundation of the most popular turboprop family. A King Air C90 is a right-size aircraft for many missions – small enough to fit on just about any airport, yet large enough to make an impressive statement.
Beechcraft 90-series turboprops have flown executives for most of a half century, their dependable, powerful Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6A turbines delivering the performance promised by a four-to-six seat cabin, boarded by a massive airstair. Just walking up to a King Air gives the passengers a feeling of solid capability; it stands tall on large, sturdy landing gear, the tail rising fifteen feet into the air. It looks like the miniature airliner it is.
Historically Speaking
Initially, Beech Aircraft had more ambitious ideas when it first considered a turboprop follow-on to the aging Model 18 Twin Beech. It had proposed a Model 120 corporate twin, an eight-passenger, 12,500-pound airplane spanning 56 feet, to be powered by 917-shp Turbomeca Bastan IV French- built turboprops. However, the U.S. Army was interested in a turbine-powered version of Beech’s L-23F (Queen Air), using a new Pratt & Whitney free-turbine engine in the 500-hp class. The conservative Beech management correctly assumed that buyers would more readily accept the familiar Queen Air-based airframe and the Model 120 never progressed beyond the mock-up stage.
I well remember my first viewing of a Beech Queen Air. “Now,” I thought, “THIS is an airplane!” The breadloaf
4 TWIN & TURBINE
Photo Courtesy of Paul Bowen