Beechcraft 1900

The 1900 was Beechcraft's third regional airliner, after the Model 18 and the Model 99, and the last step of a lineage that began in 1949 with the Model 50 Twin Bonanza. That piston twin for the U.S. Army gained a larger cabin as the Model 65 Queen Air; turboprops and pressurisation followed with the Model 90 King Air, and finally the stretched fuselage of the Model 200 Super King Air. The 1900 came directly from the latter, conceived to compete with the Swearingen Metro and the British Aerospace Jetstream with an aircraft able to work in any weather from relatively short runways.

It flew on 3 September 1982 and the FAA certificated it on 22 November 1983 under the special SFAR 41C standards; service began in February 1984 and the ExecLiner corporate version was delivered from 1985. It kept the King Air's cockpit controls and operating habits, but stands apart through its longer fuselage and the "stabilons", small horizontal surfaces at the rear fuselage that counter T-tail blanking at high angles of attack. United States regulations require two pilots for passenger airline work, although the aircraft is certificated for single-pilot operation in corporate or cargo roles.

The first series ran to only three airframes. The 1900C dropped the aft airstair in favour of an enlarged cargo door, and the 1900D, certificated to Part 23 Commuter Category, brought the difference passengers notice most: a cabin tall enough to stand up in. It also changed engines, with two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67D of 1,279 shp against the 1,100 shp PT6A-65B of the earlier versions. With the market shifting towards 50- to 90-seat regional jets, Raytheon closed the line in October 2002 after 695 aircraft; many still fly with airlines, freight operators and government agencies.