Beechcraft 1900C

The Beechcraft 1900 began as a stretched Super King Air 200: a longer fuselage, 'stabilons' under the tail and two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-65B turboprops. The prototype flew on 3 September 1982 and the FAA certified the type on 22 November 1983 under Special Federal Aviation Regulation (SFAR) 41C. That first design had two passenger airstairs, one just behind the cockpit and one near the tail as on the smaller King Airs, plus a small door for the baggage compartment. Only three were built, serial numbers UA-1, UA-2 and UA-3.

It soon became clear that two airstairs were excessive for an aircraft carrying only 19 passengers. For the 1900C, Beechcraft kept the forward airstair, deleted the aft one and fitted an enlarged cargo door in its place. Aeropedia describes it as a large rear cargo door for freight work, opening upwards. Apart from the new door layout, the early 1900Cs were substantially similar to the original 1900s.

FAA Type Certificate Data Sheet A24CE, the same certificate that covers the King Air 200, lists the 'Model 1900C (C-12J)' as a 21-seat airliner including crew, in the normal category, approved on 22 November 1983 and, like the 1900, certified under SFAR 41C; the later 1900D moved to FAR Part 23 commuter category standards. The minimum crew set by the certificate is one pilot: regulations require two pilots for scheduled passenger work, but the aircraft may be flown single-pilot in corporate or cargo operations.

The certificate splits the 1900C into three blocks by fuel system and customer: '1900C Bladder Tank Fuel System', UB-1 through UB-74; '1900C Wet Wing Fuel System', UC-1 through UC-174; and '1900C C-12J', UD-1 through UD-6. This page covers the first block, the UB series: 74 aircraft, many of which remain in service according to the English Wikipedia. The certificate holder was Beech Aircraft Corporation, which transferred it to Raytheon Aircraft Company on 15 April 1996; Raytheon passed it to Hawker Beechcraft Corporation on 26 March 2007.

What sets the UB series apart from later 1900Cs is fuel. The UA and UB aircraft use bladder-type tanks in the wings; according to the certificate, each of the two main tanks, left and right, holds 215 US gallons (about 814 litres), of which 212.5 (about 804 litres) are usable. The UC-series 1900Cs adopted a wet wing, with whole sections of the wing sealed off as fuel tanks, larger main tanks and auxiliary tanks, which substantially increased range; the UB series is therefore the lowest-fuel version of the family.

The 1900C is powered by two PT6A-65Bs. The certificate rates them at 1,100 shp (about 820 kW) both for takeoff, for five minutes, and at maximum continuous power, with a propeller shaft speed of 1,700 rpm. The propellers are four-blade Hartzell HC-B4MP-3A units with composite blades, 109.5 in (about 2.78 m) in diameter.

The certificated maximum takeoff weight is 7,530 kg (16,600 lb), matching the loaded weight given by Aeropedia, and the maximum operating altitude is 7,620 m (25,000 ft). The maximum operating speed is 247 knots (about 457 km/h) indicated airspeed, with a maximum operating Mach number of 0.48. Aeropedia gives the 1900C a wingspan of 16.61 m, a length of 17.63 m, a height of 4.53 m, a wing area of 28.15 m² and an empty weight of 3,946 kg.

Designed for short regional sectors, the 1900C had single-point refuelling, a 3.56 m³ baggage hold able to take more than 680 kg, and quick-release seats that allowed conversion from passenger to cargo layout in about 20 minutes. Beech offered it as an airliner and as a 12-seat executive version, marketed as the King Air ExecLiner and first delivered in 1985; production took place at Wichita, Kansas, initially at four aircraft a month and later eight. One documented UB-series example is VH-FWA (UB-61), imported into Australia by Vincent Aviation in June 1996.

The sources do not date the switch from the UB to the UC series, nor the first flight of a 1900C. Aeropedia puts the number of 1900Cs delivered at 207 by the end of production in 1991, in favour of the 1900D, while the certificate's serial blocks add up to 254; neither figure refers to the UB series. Accident lists and the July 2018 airline count (114 1900Cs in service) do not distinguish series either, so they are not attributed here to these 74 aircraft.