Beechcraft Queen Air

The Beechcraft Queen Air is a twin-engined light aircraft produced by Beechcraft in numerous versions from 1960 to 1978. Based upon the Twin Bonanza, with which it shared key components such as wings, engines, and tail surfaces, it had a larger fuselage, and served as the basis for the highly successful King Air series of turboprop aircraft.  Its primary uses have been as a private aircraft, utility, and small commuter airliner. Production ran for 17 years.

Design and development
With the company's popular Twin Bonanza reaching its limits of development, Beechcraft decided to develop a design based on it but with a larger fuselage and new tail.  The result was the Beech 65, the first of the Queen Air series, a twin-engined nine-seat low-wing cantilever cabin monoplane with retractable tricycle landing gear. It was initially powered by two  Lycoming IGSO-480 six-cylinder, horizontally opposed piston engines. 

Early in development the United States Army, which had been a customer of the Twin Bonanza (designated the L-23 Seminole), ordered 68 aircraft under the designation L-23F. The prototype Beech 65 first flew on August 28, 1958, with the production model receiving a Federal Aviation Authority type certificate on February 4, 1959; initial deliveries were made soon after. On February 8, 1960, a Queen Air achieved a new height record of 34,862 feet.

The basic Model 65 was in production until 1967, overlapped by the introduction of other variants, and was followed by improved Model A65 with a swept rather than vertical tail. Variants introduced a longer wing in some models, as well as pressurization in one.  The Queen Air series ended in 1978.

Variants

65
This is the initial version of the Queen Air, powered by two   Lycoming IGSO-480s. Fitted with short span () wings and a straight unswept tail. It had a gross weight of . Usually referred to as a "straight 65". 316 built from 1959 to 1967.

A65
First produced in 1967, the A65 is very similar to the straight 65. The major change was the addition of a swept tail with a dorsal fin. Available fuel was also increased, with a maximum capacity of  when auxiliary tanks are fitted. A dedicated airliner version, the A65-8200 Queen Airliner was available with an increased gross weight of . A total of 96 A65s were built between 1967 and 1970.

70
Introduced in 1968, the 70 is essentially an A65 with the B80 wing. This allows the 70 to have a greater lifting ability than the 65 but a lower fuel burn and operating cost than the 80. It. Its gross weight is . A total of 35 were built between 1969 and 1971.

80
The 80 (also known as the Model 65-80) was the first of the Queen Airs to have the swept tail, although it retained the short wings of the Model 65. First flown on June 22, 1961 and certified on February 20, 1962, it was powered by  Lycoming IGSO-540 and had a gross weight of . 148 built from 1962 to 1963.

A80

The A80 (also known as the Model 64-A80) was introduced in 1964 with a new, longer wing, increasing wingspan from  to . Other major changes included a redesign of the aircraft nose, an increase in fuel capacity, and a 500-pound increase in takeoff weight to  gross. 121 built between 1964 and 1966.

B80
Introduced in 1966, the B80 became the final Queen Air and had by far the longest production run in the series, some 12 years.  Available with either 380 hp Lycoming IGSO-540-A1A or  Lycoming IGSO-540-A1D engines, its major improvement was the increased gross weight to a . 242 built from 1966 to 1977.

88

The only pressurized Queen Air, the model 88 was introduced in 1965 and shares the engines and long wing of the B80. Sales were slack due to its higher sales price and lower useful load as compared to the B80, and ended in 1969. Only 47 examples were produced, of which two were converted to King Air standard.

Its round cabin windows make the 88 look quite similar to a 90 series King Air. The first two models of the King Air's official designation were BE65-90 and BE65-A90 owing to its Queen Air heritage.

Excalibur

Th Excalibur is an up-engined aftermarket modification to the BE65 performed by supplemental type certificates (STC). It replaced the six-cylinder Lycoming IGSO-480 and Lycoming IGSO-540 with the far more robust eight-cylinder  Lycoming IO-720. This eliminated the need for a gearbox or superchargers and their associated maintenance and potential reliability problems, at the expense of being limited to a cruising altitude below fifteen thousand feet. Gross weights increased to  for all short-wing aircraft (65, A65, 80),  for the 70, and 8800 for the other long-wing aircraft (A80, B80, 88). The US Army National Guard installed this modification on some of their aircraft. The Excalibur can be recognized by the noticeably smaller engine cowlings and lower-set engines. It was originally designed and produced by Ed Swearingen, who was well known for his work on the Twin Bonanza, Queen Air, and later Merlin and Metro Swearingen aircraft. The ownership of the pictured aircraft changed hands many times over the years, and was Bemidji Aviation, an operator of Excalibur Queen Airs as well as other charter and freight aircraft in the upper mid-west of the United States, at the time of the photo in 2011.

Production numbers
Production numbers of Beechcraft Queen Airs by variant, from the Hawker Beechcraft serialization list:
65 and A65 - 339 
70 - 37 
80, A80, B80 - 509 
88 - 45 
Total - 930

Military operators

 
 Algerian Air Force - 3 B80s in service as of 1986.
 
 Argentine Army Aviation
 Argentine Naval Aviation - 5 B80s as of 1986.
 Argentine National Gendarmerie - At least one aircraft confiscated from drug smugglers operated in late 1990s
  Eight aircraft received,
  One Queen Air operated.
 
 Colombian Air Force
 
 Air Force of the Dominican Republic
 
 Ecuadorian Army
 
 Border Security Force
 
 Israeli Air Force - Seven B80s received.
 
Haiti Air Corps
 
 Japan Air Self-Defense Force
Central Air Command Support Squadron
 Japan Maritime Self Defense Force
  - One Model 80
 
 
Peruvian Air Force acquired 18 Queen Airs in 1965–1966.
Peruvian Army
 
 Philippine Army
 
 South African Air Force 1975-1992
 
 Royal Thai Air Force
 
 United States Army
 
 Uruguayan Air Force
 
 Venezuelan Air Force - Two Model 65s and seven A80s.
 Venezuelan Army
 Venezuelan National Guard

Specifications (Queen Air B80)

See also

References

Notes

Bibliography
"Andean Air Power...The Peruvian Air Force". Air International, May 1988. Vol. 34, No. 5. pp. 224–235, 240.
 Harding, Stephen. U.S. Army Aircraft Since 1947. Shrewsbury, UK: Airlife Publishing Ltd., 1990. .  
 Hatch, Paul F. "Air Forces of the World: Venezuelan Army Air Arm (Aviación del Ejercito Venezolana)". Air Pictorial, April 1994, Vol. 46 No. 4. p. 127.
 Hatch, Paul F. "World's Air Forces 1986". Flight International, 29 November 1986, Vol. 130, No. 4039. pp. 30–104. .
 Pelletier, A. J. Beech Aircraft and their Predecessors. Annapolis, Maryland, USA: Naval Institute Press, 1995. .
 Rivas, Santiago. "Cracking the Drug cartels". Air International, April 2021. Vol. 100, No. 4, pp. 46–49 
 Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1965–66. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., 1965.
 Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1971–72. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co. Ltd., 1971. .
 Taylor, John W. R. Jane's All the World's Aircraft 1976-77. London:Jane's Yearbooks, 1976. .

1950s United States civil utility aircraft
Queen Air
Low-wing aircraft
Aircraft first flown in 1958
Twin piston-engined tractor aircraft