Professional Pilot, March 2016

Special mission King Air 350s typically are decked out with Raisbeck Engineerings dual aft body strakes high flotation gear doors and nacelle wing lockers pellers for the entire King Air family Raisbeck Founder and CEO James Raisbeck states The results of these efforts provide increased across theboard performance a truly quiet environment 76 PROFESSIONAL PILOT March 2016 and stunning ramp presence Both companies look forward to introducing the newest members of the swept blade propeller family to King Air 350 operators worldwide In addition to providing King Air upgrades Raisbeck has a long history of developing systems for the Learjet family of aircraft In the 1970s Raisbeck engineers designed aerodynamic enhancements for the Lear 20 and 30 series aircraft All of these systems were adopted by Learjet as standard production features the Century II and Century III Softlite wings The Raisbeck aft fuselage locker was developed for the Learjet 31 35 36 in the mid 1990s and the system was adopted as standard equipment on Lear 31s beginning with s n 31 122 In 2004 the Raisbeck ZR Lite wing system a more radical upgrade featuring recontoured flap trailing edges was certified for the Lear 35 36 certified on the Lear 31 in 2007 giving operators 11 to 14 savings in block fuel Over 100 Lear 30s are now equipped with the ZR Lite mod Most recently Raisbeck certified the Learjet 60 aft fuselage locker This modification added 300 lbs of capacity and 28 cu ft of space to fit oversized baggage up to 12 ft in length Additional benefits include increased payload and range flexibility greater CG control and improved stability Blackhawk Blackhawk Aerospace has been upgrading stock aircraft with so so performance to better than new performance since 1999 The company says The best new aircraft may already be in your hangar Nearly 600 times customers have upgraded their existing P WC PT6A powered aircraft mainly King Airs and Caravans to have more power with Blackhawk conversions According to Blackhawk CEO Jim Allmon Blackhawks primary business model is to engineer certify market and sell new PT6A engine upgrades as well as other complimentary products such as Hawkeye Digilog Gauges and XR Fuel Lockers that support legacy aircraft Blackhawks niche is to use the STC process to bring older aircraft up to current production performance levels Customer support has been paramount to our success which sets us apart from many other STC modifiers Blackhawk is the largest non OEM buyer of PT6A powerplants To date the company has purchased over 1000 PT6 engines Allmon says The bread and butter of Blackhawk has been the PT6A 135A engines for the King Air C90 series as well as the PT6A 61 and 52 for the King Air 200 series The XP42A for the Caravan has also been a solid program And there is tremendous potential with the XP140 STC now in hand The XP140 upgrade replaces the Caravans original 600 675 shp PT6A 141 engine with a new 867 shp PT6A 140 This is a seamless installation that retains the existing cowl exhaust system and engine mount making it the most cost effective Caravan engine upgrade in the market Blackhawks relationship with Pratt Whitney Canada is a key differentiator in the marketplace Allmon adds We fall under their Converter Exchange Program which is designed to remove aging engines from the Raisbecks dual aft body strakes for the King Air improve performance and directional stability while reducing drag Textron Aviation now installs these strakes on all new production King Airs Raisbeck Engineering and Hartzell Propellers have teamed to offer swept blade propellers for King Air 350 200 and 90 aircraft The recently certified King Air 350 props pictures above are available in either 4 blade aluminum or 5 blade composite options Raisbeck Engineering offers its EPIC performance package to King Air C90 owners This package includes swept blade turbofan propellers dual aft body strakes increased MTOW and improved takeoff climb and cruise performance Textron Aviation began including this package on all new C90GTx aircraft beginning with s n LJ 2121