![]() First it was the Airbus A330-300 (updated to Version 2) and then the workhorse DHC-6 Twin Otter -300, and now here is a general aviation aircraft in the Beechcraft Duke B60. You have to give some credit to RW Designs that they are not if anything give you a lot variety in their choice of aircraft. On 1st February 1968 the FAA issued the type certificate for the aircraft. The Duke first flew on 29th December 1966 when the prototype made its first flight. The modification does have some disadvantages as it increases fuel burn from 56 gallons per hour to 66 and lowers the certified ceiling from 30,000 feet to 28,000. The cruise speed is increased to 290 knots at 29,000 feet. The maximum rate of climb is increased from 1,600 feet per minute to whopping 4,000 feet per minute, reducing the time to climb to 25,000 feet from 25 minutes to 9 minutes. As noted the Turbine upgrades the take-off length required by over 1,500 feet to only 1,000 feet and the landing distance is reduced by over 2,000 feet to only 900. Two factors however kept the aircraft flying with an update that included an improved pressurized cabin that utilised a advanced bonded honeycomb construction, lighter and more efficient turbochargers and improved elevators over the Baron it competed with, this was the B60 as represented here and this aircraft was powered by the Lycoming TIO541-B4 engines that develop 380 hp each, and a second development, Rocket Engineering of Spokane, Washington, replaced the Lycoming reciprocating engines with Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 or -35 turbine engines that gave the aircraft the sort of performance it should have had in the first place. That is mainly because the aircraft was very advanced in its time, with Electro-mechanical systems when the aircraft was introduced, but the aircraft does has its downsides in that it has a very poor drag factor, and crash one and they were impossible (meaning very expensive) to repair. As many are still flying and is still very popular amongst the owners who treat the aircraft as others treat their classic car collections. That is not taking away that the aircraft was not popular, because it was. The Beechcraft Duke was originally created as a gap filler in between the Beechcraft Baron and the Beechcraft QueenAir in the Beechcraft Twin-Engine sales lineup, but the aircraft never became a big sales hit (only 598 Aircraft were produced), and many commentators noted that overall Beechcraft didn't want to take sales away from their highly successful (and profitable) KingAir lineups, so the aircraft became really just a small niche aircraft in Beechcraft's history. Aircraft Review - Beechcraft Duke B60 by RW Designs
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