Aircraft Overview: Textron Beechcraft King Air B200GT, 250 & 26 | Aviation Week Network

The Beechcraft King Air B200GT, 250, and 260 represent a continuous evolutionary line within Textron Aviation's turboprop portfolio, all sharing a single FAA type certificate originally approved on November 16, 2007, yet spanning more than 15 years of incremental development. The B200GT established the foundation with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-52 engines rated at 850 shp each, a 12,500-lb. maximum takeoff weight, and a 35,000-ft. service ceiling. The King Air 250, unveiled in October 2010 and certified by June 2011 under Hawker Beechcraft, introduced composite propellers and BLR Aerospace winglets that improved efficiency across all flight phases. The King Air 260 followed a decade later, announced in December 2020 and FAA-certified in March 2021, adding the IS&S ThrustSense Autothrottle and Multi-Scan weather radar as standard equipment—meaningful operational upgrades rather than cosmetic rebranding.

All three commercial designations share identical core performance numbers that professional operators should internalize: 310-kt. true airspeed maximum cruise, a 1,720-nm maximum range under NBAA IFR reserve conditions, a 2,111-ft. takeoff distance, and a 2,845-ft. landing distance. These figures assume standard conditions, no wind, and operation at MTOW—conditions rarely aligned in line operations—but they establish a credible performance envelope for the sub-12,500-lb. turboprop class. The shared MTOW cap at 12,500 lb. is a deliberate and commercially significant threshold: it places all three variants beneath the FAR Part 135 pilot-in-command ATP requirement trigger for aircraft above that weight and aligns the airframes with a broad base of Part 91 and charter operators seeking to avoid the more stringent regulatory burdens attached to heavier transport-category turboprops.

The avionics trajectory across the B200GT line tracks the broader industry shift toward integrated glass cockpits with touch-interface and autoflight capability. While the original B200GT shipped with Collins Pro Line 21, Beechcraft's 2015 certification of Pro Line Fusion for the King Air 250 brought three 14-in. touchscreen displays, dual FMS, EICAS, iTAWS, synthetic vision, and TCAS II into the standard configuration—a suite that meaningfully compresses pilot workload in single-pilot operations, for which the entire type is certified. The addition of ThrustSense Autothrottle as standard on the King Air 260 is particularly notable: autothrottle on a turboprop in this weight class has historically been optional or absent, and its inclusion standardizes power management in a segment where PT6 torque and ITT discipline during climb and cruise is a primary training and proficiency focus. For charter operators running single-pilot 135 ops, that reduction in manual power management demands has direct implications for fatigue and situational awareness.

From a fleet planning and residual value standpoint, the shared type certificate across the B200GT, 250, and 260 provides continuity of training, maintenance, and parts commonality that operators running mixed fleets value highly. The 260's 8,830-lb. basic empty weight yields a 3,760-lb. useful load, and with 550 lb. of baggage capacity and nine-seat marketing, the aircraft sits squarely in the mission profile dominating business aviation in the mid-continent and regional charter markets: six to eight passengers, two-to-three-hour legs, access to shorter runways in secondary markets. Annual operating costs in the $264,000 range for the 250 variant, combined with a used market price around $3.95 million for post-2011 examples, keep the platform accessible to owner-operators and small charter certificate holders who need turboprop capability without the acquisition and operating costs of a light jet. The King Air line's longevity in this segment—sustained through deliberate, standards-compliant upgrades rather than platform replacement—reflects a product strategy that has proven durable across multiple ownership cycles and regulatory environments.