July 2013 King Air magazine cover article

A MAGAZINE FOR THE OWNER/PILOT OF KING AIR AIRCRAFT

JULY 2013 • VOLUME 7, NUMBER 5 • $4.50

A 50-year Legacy

King Air Fleet Surpasses 60 Million Hours

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60,000

an

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00,000

and counting

by Melinda Schnyder

T

his spring Beechcraft Corporation announced that the worldwide fleet of Beechcraft King Air turboprops has topped 60 million flight hours. This milestone comes on the heels

of the company delivering the 7,000th King Air during the fall of 2012, and only a few months in advance of the 50-year anniversary of King Air production. Keeping tabs on the entirety of the world’s most prolific family of business aircraft is no easy task. Here’s an inside look at the numbers and how the Beechcraft team collects utilization data.

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As you read this, an estimated 1,000 King Air aircraft are airborne somewhere in the world. This is based on the sheer number of aircraft flying and their reported flight hours combined with the King Air’s range and ability to fly just about anywhere in the world.

Of the 7,000 King Airs delivered since production began in 1964, an estimated 6,250 are still in operation in 127 countries around the world. These twin turboprops serve a variety of missions ranging from traditional transport of personnel and high-value cargo, to electronic and imagery surveillance, air ambulance, airway calibration, photographic mapping, training, weather modification, as well as serving in all branches

of the United States military.

The King Air 200 in 1973 (below) and the current version of the aircraft, the King Air 250 (above).

The aircraft lineage has had many updates and improvements over the years and its performance and reliability continues to appeal to buyers. (BEECHCRAFT CORP.)

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Crew members and their leadership from the 4th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron in front of one of their King Airs marking a milestone of exceeding over 100,000 flying hours in under three years using their fleet of MC-12s during Project Liberty. (U.S. AIR FORCE PHOTO)

A Royal Legacy In 1963, Beech Aircraft Corporation announced a pressurized twin turboprop to be called the Beechcraft King Air Model 90. It had a six- to eight-seat cabin, cruising speed of 270 miles per hour, over-the-weather operating capability and slow-speed landing permitting safe use of small fields and airstrips. The company marketed the King Air’s cabin pressurization, air conditioning and soundproofing as setting new standards of comfort for passengers and crew on business aircraft. The aircraft was certified and began deliveries in 1964.

When Beechcraft introduced the larger King Air 100 in 1969, company marketers said the King Air 90 series had captured 45 percent of the turboprop market since its introduction just a few years earlier. Today, Beechcraft’s data attributes 53 percent of the worldwide business turboprop market to the King Air line.

With numerous design changes, configuration options, along with special mission and military derivatives, 8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE

Military use of the King Air started as early as 1967, as shown in the photo, and is still strong today. It is used in many countries for various uses, including the United States.

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the company had as many as six King Air models in production at one time. There have been four main model series: Model 90: 2,872 produced and counting, with the current production C90GTx Model 100: 383 built and no longer in production Model 200: 2,677 and counting, with the current

250 model JULY 2013

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Model 300: 1,153 and represented in the current production line by the 350i “The King Air is still king. We delivered the 5,000th King Air in 1996, the 6,000th in 2005 and now we’ve reached 7,000 – clearly, interest in the all-time bestselling business aircraft family is as strong as ever,” Shawn Vick, executive vice president of Sales and Marketing for Beechcraft Corp., said when the company announced the milestone in November 2012. “Thanks to constant innovation, its durability and utility are unmatched by any other airplane in the world. Through relentless product enhancements, the King Air’s performance and value have continuously increased and set the standards in our industry.”

Tracking Moving Targets “Millions of hours of flight experience represents a tremendous knowledge base that is fed back into Beechcraft,” Vick said when the 60 million-hour mark was announced this spring. One way Beechcraft accesses that ‘tremendous knowledge base’ is by studying utilization data on how King Airs are being flown and how they perform.

From a unique seat straddling the company’s information technology department and its sales and marketing organization, a team of Beechcrafters works

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to track every aircraft the company has delivered since the manufacturer opened its doors in Wichita, Kansas, in 1932. That’s in excess of 54,000 aircraft, including more than 36,000 currently flying and still amassing hours.

“The King Air is still king … clearly, interest in the all-time best-selling business aircraft family is as strong as ever.”

That’s pages of unique serial numbers in a database that stores the date the aircraft began accumulating hours, total flight hours, cycles, ownership and country in which it’s registered. If an aircraft is taken out of service, that is noted along with the reason, if available.

The team uses a data model that it created in the 1990s when tracking the cycle time for landing gear on its line of Hawker business jets. The data was instrumental for product marketing as well as engineering efforts, and it launched a massive, ongoing project to manage similar data across all of the company’s products.

Flight hours are based on a series of data points recorded for each serial number. If a recent data point isn’t available for a serial number, a projection is given based on existing data. If a serial number does not have

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The General Aviation Manufacturers Association 2012 year-end shipment of general aviation airplanes report shows that worldwide turboprop deliveries increased by 10.3 percent year-over-year, from 526 aircraft in 2011 to 580 in 2012.

Beechcraft Corp. delivered 85 of its three current production King Air models to commercial customers in 2012. Quantity is as follows: 38 King Air 350i 22 King Air 250 25 King Air C90GTx In the first quarter of 2013, Beechcraft delivered: 16 King Air 350i/ER 13 King Air 250 5 King Air C90GTx

a data point for flight hours, Beechcraft uses the average for the known serial numbers to assign a projected total.

Of the 865 serial numbers in the database for the King Air 350/350C, for example, 30 are without a data point. That means 97 percent of the King Air 350 units delivered into service have recent data points. On the other hand, data for the King Air Model 90 serial numbers is not as consistent. Nearly every serial number of this model delivered in the past 20 years has a recent data point in Beechcraft’s database, while the company has had a harder time painting an accurate picture of early production utilization.

It’s easy to understand why: the newer the aircraft, the more touch points the manufacturer and operator are likely to have. An operator might call into Beechcraft’s Global Customer Support for technical support or to order a part, or they might take their aircraft to a Hawker Beechcraft Services facility for warranty maintenance or be enrolled in a SupportPLUS program. While working with the operator, Beechcraft captures the serial number and other relevant data such as flight hours.

Each week this information gathered by Global Customer Support is automatically synched with the company’s aircraft utilization database, creating recent data points for those serial numbers. Other informants are third-party sources such as JetNet and Beechcraft’s accident investigation team, which helps to capture when a serial number goes out of service permanently.

What the King Air Database Shows A serial number’s status changes minute-by-minute, especially when talking about tallying flight hours or the total number of airworthy aircraft for a fleet as large and geographically diverse as the King Air. So while JULY 2013

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the Beechcraft team is confident with the methodology of its data collection and reporting, the team considers itself in perpetual “projected” mode.

In addition to showing that the fleet of 7,000 Beechcraft King Airs is well beyond 60 million flight hours, the database is a study in trends among the various King Air models and mission types. For example, the company can drill down into the total 2,677 Model 200 series aircraft built and find that of the 1,138 B200 derivatives, 1,092 are still in service and the fleet averages 30.7 flight hours a month, or about 370 hours a year.

Without identifying individual operator s’ st atistic s, t he team shared a few interesting utilization points from examining the database.

Besides improvements in performance, the interior of the King Air line has also been updated to meet customer’s growing needs. The King Air 350i interior has access for laptops, smart phones and digital media players and features the Flexcabin™ design which simplifies reconfiguring seats or allowing more room for passengers. (BEECHCRAFT CORP.)

The lowest serial number believed to still be in use for its

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original intended role of a corporate transport is LJ36, built in 1965. As of July 9, 2012, the aircraft had accumulated 4,690 flight hours and was shown to still be in service. Among the high-time serial numbers are King Airs used in military service. Not only are King Airs used in every branch of the United States military, they are popular aircraft with governments around the world.

providers in Europe. Similar methodology has an air ambulance operator in Canada with similar hours on its King Air 300. One of the largest and most used fleets of King Air B200s provides medical services to remote and rural Australia via the Royal Flying Doctor Service.

According to the United States Air Force, 37 King Air 350s and 350ERs were modified and put into service in 2009 with the designation MC-12. The “M” being prefixed to denote that the aircraft is a multirole version of the C-12 series of the Department of Defense. The MC-12 is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft acquired for Project Liberty, which includes Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Enduring Iraqi Freedom in Iraq.

Fitted with high-tech optical and sensor equipment to directly support ground forces, the fleet reached 100,000 flight hours in two years and nine months, according to a 2012 U.S. Air Force news release.

While the team stays on top of data streaming on more recently delivered aircraft, it continues to work to find information about older serial numbers that don’t have recent data points.

Other high-time King Airs are often found among charter and air ambulance operators. Projecting from a data point collected in 2011, a King Air 350 based in Germany has surpassed 16,500 flight hours for one of the largest assistance and emergency service

Are you a current operator?

Current King Air owners are invited to share total airframe hours, cycles and other relevant data to be recorded in the company’s utilization database by contacting Beechcraft using the form at Hours.

Beechcraft.com.

“We greatly value the global experience of our customers and use it to drive major and minor product improvements into the King Air line,” said Beechcraft’s Vick. “This means today’s King Air models offer significantly higher performance and reliability than their predecessors and, with our renewed focus on Beechcraft products, we are looking forward to even more improvements to come.” KA

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