In a market with seemingly unlimited choices of new and used light jets, buyers are still drawn to venerable King Air twin turboprops. These are workhorses with an earned reputation for having roomy cabins, good dispatch reliability, and solid handling. Using the C90B as an example, one company—Blackhawk Aerospace—has made a healthy business upgrading the stock Pratt & Whitney PT-6A-21 engines with higher-horsepower PT-6A-135A engines, giving the airplane a sizable boost in speed and performance. AvBrief’s Larry Anglisano spotted an upgraded C90B at Sun ‘n Fun 2026 in Florida and spent some time with its owner and Blackhawk’s Edwin Black to learn why refurbing these old twins often make sense.
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Larry, I believe you mean the upgrade for the C90B is from the -21 engine to the -135A.
Yes. The originals had the Pratt -21s. Edwin said this C90B model had the -61s, which would have been a previous XP61 Blackhawk upgrade for this airplane before these big -135As.
I think the reason why the smallest King Air was discontinued was, you need a bigger airplane – the 260 if not 360 King Air – to justify two engines when there are so many single-engine turboprop aircraft out there. One wonders if present owners of C90B-type aircraft hold on to them, because even though T-prop engines are more reliable than pistons they are still nervous about flying over Lake Michigan (or any other large body of water) in an aircraft with only one engine.