Beechcraft

Beechcraft and Cessna are long established names in aviation. Both are subsidiaries of Textron Aviation. (Textron Aviation also owns Hawker but does not offer new models, only offers services)

  • King Air: twin-engined, the first turboprop, 250 has 9 seats, 350 has 11 seats; Beechcraft 1900 was derived from King Air
  • Baron G58: twin-engined, 6-seat,
  • Bonanza G36: single-engined, 6-seat, "G" is for Garmin
    • Model 35 featured retractable landing gear and V-tail

The "G" in G58 and G36 highlights that they are equipped with Garmin 1000.

King Air

King Air C90GTx was the original King Air, part of Model 90 series; Model 100 is a stretched derivative of the Model 90, and ceased production in 1983.

King Air 260 (Model 200) and 360 (Model 300 series) were previously called Super King Air, the "Super" was dropped in 1996. The visible different between Super and non-Super is that Supers have T-tails.

Avionics: Collins Aerospace Pro Line Fusion Avionics Suite.

Bonanza

  • Model 35 Bonanza, V-tail, 1947–1982.
  • Model 33 Debonair or Bonanza, conventional tail, 1960–1995.
  • Model 36 Bonanza, conventional tail, a stretched Model 33, 6-seat, 1968–present.
    • G36: glass cockpit (Garmin G1000), 2006–present. Still in production. Continental IO-550, same engine as the popular Cirrus SR22.

Model 35 Bonanza (the V-tail version) was named "Doctor Killer" due to some high-profile crashes after it was introduced.

Bonanza was introduced in 1947, it was more complex than the other models at the time, like Cessna 140. And Doctors were among the high paying occupations that could afford such a new model. The problem was mitigated after proper trainings were offered.

Similar issues happened duing those transition time. E.g. Cessna 310 has a high initial accident rate when single engine aircraft pilot transition to multi-engine; and when Cirrus was called "geek killer" for similar reasons.