Beechcraft King Air E90

The E90 is the King Air 90 that trades payload for reach. Built from 1972 to 1981 across 347 airframes (LW-1 to LW-347), it is a C90 airframe carrying the bigger A100's engines and, more importantly, the A100's fuel system — 474 usable gallons against a C90's 384. Same wing, same fuselage, same 50'2" span and 35'6" length. Ninety more gallons.

It sat as a row in the C90 page's variants table until September 2026, which understated it: that page's numbers describe a C90B, and an airplane with 23% more fuel and 28% more useful load cannot be scored from them.

The engines are the trap. The PT6A-28 is rated 680 shp and every listing says so, but Beech installed it flat-rated to 550 — the same placarded power as a C90's PT6A-21. The 1972 report is unusually clear about why: pulling the full 680 would have demanded more fuel, more gross weight and expensive structural changes. What the flat rating buys instead is that the engines hold their full 550 shp to altitude, and run 40-60 degrees cooler doing it. That is the whole airplane in one decision.

Effectively one variant across a ten-year run. Late airframes gained the four-blade propellers and interior updates that arrived across the 90 line, and the capacitance fuel gauging reads in pounds rather than gallons — a small thing that catches out pilots moving from a C90.

The stored triple is one row of the factory comparison table: 249 KTAS at high-speed cruise, 69 gph, 1,468 nm. Long-range cruise from the same table is 201 KTAS on 48 gph for 1,715 nm — the longest legs any 90-series King Air will fly.

Book cruise is 249 kt between 12,000 and 14,000 ft, 247 at 16,000 and 245 at FL210 — the flat rating showing its hand, because a C90 is losing power fast by then. The 1972 flight test recorded 253 KTAS at 16,500 ft, so the airplane met its numbers.

The factory's own mission profile is the honest planning figure: six people, 180 lb of baggage, 3,084 lb of fuel, FL210, 45-minute reserve — 1,265 nm at a 243 kt average, five hours 18 minutes. At maximum-range power the same load goes 1,562 nm in eight hours one minute.

Climb at gross is 1,870 fpm at sea level, 1,750 fpm at 5,000 ft, both at 113 KIAS. Single-engine climb 470 fpm with a 14,390 ft engine-out ceiling. Two-engine service ceiling is 27,620 ft at gross, reaching 30,000 ft with fuel burned off — listings quote the 30,000, this page stores the figure a loaded airplane actually gets.

Sourcing caveat, and it is the same one the F90 page carries. 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 E90 in this catalogue. Airspeed limits are the C90A's, which the E90 shares as the same airframe, and are flagged as such. Stall speeds are deliberately blank rather than borrowed from the lighter C90 book.

10,100 lb gross, 5,816 lb equipped empty, 474 gal (3,176 lb) usable:

Read the first row carefully, because it corrects a claim this catalogue used to make. The E90's full-fuel payload is 1,108 lb — less than the C90's 1,416 lb, not more. The extra 90 gallons weigh about 600 lb while gross weight rose only 450, so the E90 buys range by giving up full-fuel payload. Its useful load is higher (4,284 lb against 4,025), which is the number that misled us; the number a buyer plans around moves the other way.

That still makes it the best long-legged 90 by a wide margin. It just is not the load-hauler the C90 page previously claimed, and a buyer choosing on payload should look at a B200 instead.

Empty weight varies more than usual on this type — 5,800 lb published, 6,280 lb on the factory demonstrator with options fitted. Weigh the actual airplane; on a 45-year-old airframe with an unknown equipment history the brochure figure is a starting point, not an answer.

Related pages: King Air C90, King Air C90GT/GTi/GTx, King Air F90, King Air 200/B200, Pilatus PC-12, Piper Cheyenne I/II, valuation-methodology, engine-overhaul-pricing, insurance-underwriting, maintenance-ecosystem, cross-country, business-travel

Cross-country (9/10). The best in the 90 series and the reason to buy one. 1,265 nm with six aboard, or 1,562 nm pulled back, from an airplane that costs C90 money.

Business travel (8/10). Same cabin, same runway manners and same insurance profile as a C90, with the fuel to skip a stop. Held from 9 by the full-fuel payload below.

Surveying (8/10). Eight hours of endurance at long-range power is a genuinely unusual number in this class, and the type has the stability and the sensor-mounting history for it.

Cargo hauling (5/10), Backcountry (3/10), Training (2/10), Local fun (2/10), Aerobatics (1/10). As the rest of the 90 line.

Every E90 left Wichita between 1972 and 1981, so panel state defines the fleet entirely. Expect Collins or King radios and mechanical gyros unless money has been spent. The common refresh is dual GTN Xi navigators, a GTX 345 and a G600 TXi with the original autopilot overhauled — $150,000 to $250,000, and a tired original panel should be priced in on any purchase.

The capacitance fuel gauging reads in pounds, unlike the C90's gallons. Worth a briefing rather than a surprise.

See Avionics Pricing Reference.

• Raisbeck swept-blade propellers, aft-body strakes and wing lockers, as across the 90 series.
• Blackhawk offers no -28 upgrade path comparable to the C90's XP135A, so the E90 is generally flown as built — which keeps acquisition cheap and removes an upgrade route.
• Commuter and air-ambulance interiors are common on this generation; verify the paperwork and the weight.

• Parts: excellent. The PT6A ecosystem is the best-supported in aviation, and the airframe shares most of its structure with the C90.
• Mechanics: common. Every turboprop shop knows King Airs.
• Annual/phase: $15,000-$35,000 routine; $60,000-$120,000 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 PT6A-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 before committing.
• Direct operating roughly $700-$900/hr with reserves; the stored $210,000/yr assumes 150 hours with hangar, insurance, training and subscriptions.

See Aircraft Valuation Methodology. E90s ask roughly $400,000 to $800,000, overlapping the C90 and C90A and sitting well below a C90B. Engine status dominates as always — a $364,000-a-side event against a $600,000 airplane means run-out examples trade near salvage-plus-green-time. Panel generation is second, tank and corrosion history third.

The E90 is a value pick that the market has never fully priced, because "680 hp" on a listing invites a buyer to expect performance the airplane does not have, and the thing it genuinely does better — range — does not show up in a spec-sheet glance. A buyer who wants reach rather than speed is buying the right airplane cheaply.

• AD 2020-26-16, lower forward wing fittings — applies across the 90/100/200 series. Confirm compliance method and next due time.
• Wing attachment bolt inspection and replacement per Beech service instructions.
• Beech SIDs and corrosion. A 45-to-55-year-old airframe: centre-section, cabin bilges and damp insulation blankets behind the sidewalls dominate the cost variance at annual.
• The fuel system is the E90's own item. It carries two tanks the C90 does not — a leading-edge bladder and an integral sealed wing tank — plus a venturi jet transfer pump. More plumbing, more places to leak, and the integral tank is a resealing job when it goes. Ask when the tanks were last resealed and look for staining at the wing root.
• PT6A-28 pattern items: compressor turbine condition, fuel nozzles, ITT margin on trend. Buy the trend data, not the log entry.

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 E90 time as 90-series time, so it transitions cleanly to and from a C90. Initial school and annual recurrent are required, as on every King Air.