Beechcraft King Air A100

The 100 series is the King Air nobody remembers, and it is the cheapest way to get a genuinely big King Air cabin. Beech stretched the 90's fuselage by more than three feet, fitted the shorter, thicker wing from the Queen Air 88, hung two PT6A-28s at their full 680 shp, and sold it from 1969 as the Model 100.

That full 680 is the point. The E90 runs the same engine flat-rated to 550, because a 90 airframe cannot absorb more; the 100's can. Same engine, two installed ratings, and the difference is the entire reason both airplanes exist.

What you get is a 16'8" cabin — nearly four feet longer than a 90's, and only a foot shorter than a B200's — carrying eight to fifteen people at 11,500 lb, for C90 money. What you give up is altitude: the service ceiling is 24,850 ft, lower than any other King Air, and the single-engine ceiling of 9,300 ft is the lowest figure on any page in this family.

The Garrett-powered B100 shares this airframe and has its own page: a different engine manufacturer means a different overhaul bill, a different maintenance network and a different checkout.

The base 100 is a gap in this catalogue. Its 10,600 lb gross is a real 900 lb below the A100 and it carried less fuel, so the frontmatter here overstates it. Anyone shopping a 1969-72 airframe should treat these numbers as the A100's.

The stored triple is one row of the 1972 factory table: 248 KTAS at high-speed cruise, 79 gph, 1,204 nm. Long-range cruise from the same table is 209 KTAS on 61 gph for 1,340 nm.

Plan on less than the book. Tom Clements, writing in 2022, puts the B100's typical 250 kt "15 to 20 knots faster than the realistic cruise speed of the 100 and A100" — which places these airplanes at roughly 230-235 kt in service, not 248. That is the number to budget a trip on.

The ceiling is the honest limitation. 24,850 ft at gross, against a C90's 30,000 and a B200's 35,000, and a single-engine ceiling of 9,300 ft — meaning an engine failure in the mountain west puts you into terrain-clearance arithmetic that no other King Air forces. Weigh that against the cabin before buying one for western flying.

Sourcing caveat. FAA TCDS 3A20 was not retrievable and EASA IM.A.503 covers only the C90A, GT and GTi, so there is no tier-1 source for the 100 series here. Airspeed limits are the C90A's, flagged as borrowed. Stall speeds and runway distances are deliberately blank rather than taken from the 90 series, which is 1,400 lb lighter — the lighter-book trap this catalogue has been cleaning up all year.

A100: 11,500 lb gross, 6,728 lb equipped empty, 470 gal (3,149 lb) usable.

The full-fuel payload is the reason to buy this airplane. 1,623 lb with the tanks full is more than an E90 (1,108 lb) and far more than a C90B (547 lb) — this is the King Air that carries people and their luggage without arithmetic. A B200 does it better and further, for two to four times the money.

Empty weights vary widely on 45-year-old airframes with unknown equipment histories. Weigh the actual airplane rather than trusting the factory figure.

Related pages: King Air B100, King Air E90, King Air C90, King Air F90, King Air 200/B200, Piper Cheyenne I/II, Cessna 441 Conquest II, valuation-methodology, engine-overhaul-pricing, insurance-underwriting, maintenance-ecosystem, business-travel, cargo-hauling

Business travel (8/10). Eight to ten people in a cabin a foot short of a B200's, for a third of the money. The ceiling keeps it off 9.

Cross-country (8/10). 1,204 nm at high-speed cruise, 1,340 pulled back, with real cabin comfort. Low cruise altitude means more weather rather than less.

Cargo hauling (7/10). 4,772 lb useful load and a long cabin. The best load-hauler in the King Air line short of a 200.

Surveying (7/10). Endurance and cabin volume are there; the ceiling limits high-altitude work.

Backcountry (2/10), Training (2/10), Local fun (2/10), Aerobatics (1/10).

Every 100-series airframe is 45 to 55 years old, so panel state is the airplane. Expect original Collins or King unless money has been spent; a dual GTN Xi, GTX 345 and G600 TXi refresh with the autopilot overhauled runs $150,000-$250,000 and is a material share of the aircraft's value. Price a tired panel in rather than around.

See Avionics Pricing Reference.

• Raisbeck propeller and aerodynamic packages, as across the King Air line.
• Cargo and air-ambulance interiors are common on this generation given the cabin length. Verify the paperwork and the weight.
• No Blackhawk-style re-engine programme exists for the -28 in this airframe, so a 100 is generally flown as built.

• Parts: good. PT6A excellent, airframe-specific items slower than the volume King Airs.
• Mechanics: common. Any King Air shop.
• Annual/phase: $18,000-$40,000 routine; $60,000-$130,000 in a corrosion or SID year.
• Hot section ~$45,000 a side at 1,800 hr; overhaul ~$364,000 a side at 3,600 hr. The -28 is not in the P&WCSMART flat-rate programme, so unlike a C90's -21 there is no published price to hold a shop to. Get a written quote.
• Direct operating roughly $800-$1,000/hr with reserves; the stored $215,000/yr assumes 150 hours all-in.

See Aircraft Valuation Methodology. Asking prices run roughly $350,000 to $750,000 — the least expensive route to a large King Air cabin, and priced that way for reasons a buyer should understand rather than dismiss: the low ceiling, the small fleet, and an engine overhaul at about $364,000 a side against an airframe worth $500,000.

That last figure is the whole valuation story. A run-out 100 is worth little more than its green time, and the gap between a fresh-engine example and a timed-out one can exceed the price of the airplane.

• AD 2020-26-16, lower forward wing fittings — applies across the 90/100/200 series. Confirm the compliance method and next due time.
• Wing attachment bolts per Beech service instructions.
• Beech SIDs and corrosion dominate cost variance on an airframe this old: centre section, cabin bilges, damp insulation behind the sidewalls.
• Parts are "good", not "excellent" — the distinction is deliberate. The PT6A side is the best-supported turbine ecosystem in aviation, but 100-series-specific airframe parts come from a fleet far smaller than the 90's or the 200's, and lead times show it.
• PT6A-28 at full 680 shp works harder than the same engine flat-rated in an E90. Buy the trend data and the last borescope, and read ITT margin carefully.

Turbine twin; hull roughly $6,000-$14,000 on typical values, all-in $12,000-$25,000 owner-flown. See GA Insurance Underwriting and Insurance Costs. Underwriters treat 100-series time as King Air time, and initial school plus annual recurrent are required as on every model in the family.