Beechcraft A36 (registered as RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY)
Everything here is true of every aircraft of the type, not of any one aircraft.
The Bonanza A36 as built under the Raytheon name in the 1990s, with the 300 hp Continental IO-550 that replaced the IO-520 in 1984. It is the long-body six-seat Bonanza with a double cargo door on the right and club seating, and it remains the standard owner-flown travelling single: 176 knots, a 1,300 lb useful load, and build quality nothing else in the class matches.
A 1999 aeroplane is old enough to be affordable and new enough to have usable avionics and a strong airframe, which makes this generation one of the better buys in the family. The costs are real: 16 to 17 gallons an hour, an expensive IO-550 overhaul, and Beechcraft parts prices that have always run well above Cessna and Piper equivalents. Loading matters — with six aboard and the rearmost seats occupied the centre of gravity moves aft quickly and must be calculated. Insurance requires complex and high-performance endorsements and almost always a formal Bonanza transition and annual recurrent course.
Variants of the Beechcraft Bonanza 36
Also consider
- Cessna T206HScore 39.4/50 · 6 seats · 164 kt
- Cessna 210KScore 12/50 · 6 seats · 170 kt
- Helio Aircraft H-295Score 22/50 · 6 seats · 145 kt
Compare with…
Put Beechcraft A36 (registered as RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY) side by side with up to three other models.
- Beechcraft A36 (registered as RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY)
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What it is
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Landing gear | tricycle |
| Engines | 1 |
| Engine | Continental IO-550-B |
| Horsepower | 300 hp |
| Fuel | 100LL |
| Certification basis | CAR3 |
| Production start | 1970 |
| Production end | 2005 |
| Endorsements required | complex;high-performance |
Performance
| Cruise speed | 176 KTAS |
|---|---|
| Range | 900 nm |
| Service ceiling | 18,500 ft |
| Climb rate | 1,210 ft/min |
| Stall speed (Vso) | 53 KCAS |
| Takeoff over 50 ft | 1,913 ft |
| Landing over 50 ft | 1,400 ft |
Load and fuel
| Seats | 6 |
|---|---|
| Useful load | 1,300 lb |
| Full-fuel payload | 856 lb |
| Max takeoff weight | 3,650 lb |
| Empty weight | 2,350 lb |
| Usable fuel | 74 gal |
| Fuel burn at cruise | 16.8 gal/h |
Estimated cost to own
An estimate, not a quote. Change the inputs to match how you would fly it. Defaults are for a complex or high-performance single.
| Fuel (burn × price) | hourly | $124/h | $12,449/yr |
| Engine reserve (overhaul ÷ TBO) | hourly | $3,500/yr | |
| Maintenance reserve | hourly | not counted | |
| Insurance | fixed | $3,500/yr | |
| Annual inspection | fixed | $3,000/yr | |
| Hangar | fixed | $6,000/yr | |
| Rental rate, wet | for comparison |
Not in the totals: Maintenance reserve, Rental rate (for rent vs own). We have no reliable default for these lines; enter your figure to include them.
How these estimates are built. Fuel = this model's typical burn x the national average price from AirNav's Fuel Price Report (100LL $7.41, Jet A $7.66 per gallon, 5 Oct 2026; your airport may differ by $2 or more). Engine reserve = typical overhaul cost / TBO for this engine. The remaining lines are class-level defaults, not quotes for this aircraft: annual inspection is the base inspection fee (findings are counted in the per-hour maintenance line); insurance assumes an instrument-rated owner with time in type and a $1M liability limit - less experienced pilots commonly pay 1.5-2x; hangar and tie-down are national mid-tier figures, with rural and metro options; the rental rate is a 2026 flight-school rate for a comparable aircraft, including fuel. Twin and turboprop maintenance defaults are estimates, not published figures. Sources: AirNav, BWI Aviation Insurance (2019-2026), Flying (May 2026), Savvy Aviation, American Flight Schools, published airport rate sheets. Every default is editable - change any number to match your situation. Depreciation, taxes, financing and major upgrades are not included. Depreciation is not included. An estimate, not a quote.
Cost of ownership
| Price, low | $160,000 |
|---|---|
| Price, high | $520,000 |
| Prices as of | 2026 |
| Engine TBO | 1,900 h |
| Overhaul cost, low | $55,000 |
| Overhaul cost, high | $78,000 |
The fleet and its record
| Registered, all time | 604 |
|---|---|
| Active fleet | 448 |
| Median year built | 1999.0 |
| NTSB events, last 10 years | 16 |
| Fatal events, last 10 years | 3 |
| Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years | 35.711 |
| Personal-flying events per 1,000 active | 31.252 |
| Ownership transfers, last 24 months | 94 |
| Transfers per 100 active | 20.983 |
| Airworthiness directives | 20 |
| Directives, last 5 years | 0 |
| Rate confidence | ok |
- Events per 1,000 active, last 10 years: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 448 active.
- Personal-flying events per 1,000 active: per 1,000 active aircraft · base 448 active.
- Transfers per 100 active: per 100 active aircraft · base 448 active.
Peer scores6
| Peer class | Fixed wing single-engine, piston, 1 engine, 5-6 seats |
|---|---|
| Accident record | 4.2 of 101 |
| Severity | 2.2 of 102 |
| Access | 6.1 of 103 |
| Support | 9.9 of 104 |
| Liquidity | 5.5 of 105 |
| Overall (sum of the categories shown) | 27.9 out of 506 |
These record scores treat Beechcraft A36 (registered as RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY) as one design with the same aircraft registered under other names: it includes 1,906 aircraft registered under BEECH. Prices are not combined.
- Accident record: class median 38.8 · 75 models in class.
- Severity: class median 16.67.
- Access: class median 1,826.5.
- Support: class median 87.
- Liquidity: class median 17.96.
- Each of the five categories places the model within its peer class, from 0 (the worst of the class) to 10 (the best): a position among comparable models, not a grade. The overall score is the sum of the categories shown that are scored, out of 10 for each (50 when all five are); it is given only when at least 4 of the five are scored, and it can be set against another model's only when both are in the same peer class and scored on the same categories. When accident record and severity cannot be scored because the model has too few records, the other three give a partial score out of 30, labelled as such; it is never set against a full score.
Data as of: FAA registry Sep 28 · NTSB Oct 2 · ADs Oct 6 · scores Sep 30