RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT COMPANY C90A

The King Air C90 line as built under the Raytheon name during its ownership of Beech Aircraft, from 1996. The C90A on the certificate — approved in December 1983 with 550 shp PT6A-21s and a 10,100 lb gross weight — covers two commercial names in the Raytheon years: the C90B, built from serial LJ-1300 in 1992 with four-blade propellers, a cabin anti-vibration system and an EFIS panel, and the C90SE, a budget version sold alongside it with three-blade propellers, conventional instruments and a plainer interior. Every aircraft in this string is one or the other; the registry does not tell you which, but the propellers and the panel do. What is not in this string is the C90GT. Raytheon certified it in December 2005 as a separate model, with 750 shp PT6A-135A engines in place of the -21s and about 25 knots more cruise on the same airframe, and from serial LJ-1756 in 2006 it replaced the C90A on the line; the C90GTi of 2007 and the C90GTx of 2010 are its successors and are registered under their own designations. So a Raytheon C90A is a 1996 to 2006 C90B or C90SE: 222 knots, two PT6A-21s, and a flight deck a generation newer than a Beech-badged C90 but a generation older than a GTi.

The mission is identical to any C90: six to eight passengers, about 222 knots, pressurised, short and unpaved runways, all-weather dispatch. The economics are identical too — two PT6A-21 engines with hot sections and overhauls, around 80 gallons an hour, pressurisation and deice systems, and a cabin-class annual. The advantage of a Raytheon-era airframe over a Beech-badged C90 is a newer flight deck and interior and usually fewer hours, which is most of the price difference; the C90SE gives up the EFIS and the four-blade propellers for a lower price and is worth less for the same reason. No type rating is required below 12,500 lb.