Beech99
The Beechcraft Model 99 — the unpressurized twin-turboprop commuter that defined thin-route regional aviation in the 1970s — captured as an RC scale model.
About
The Beechcraft Model 99 was designed in the 1960s as a replacement for the long-running Beechcraft Model 18. It first flew in July 1966 and received type certification on May 2, 1968, with sixty-two airframes delivered by the end of that year. The design borrowed extensively from existing Beechcraft components — wings from the Queen Air, engines and nacelles from the King Air, sub-systems from both — joined to a specifically designed nose structure to produce an unpressurized 15-to-17-passenger commuter airliner. Power came from two 550-hp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-20 turboprops.
The Model 99 became synonymous with thin-route commuter aviation in the United States. Through the 1970s and 1980s, the type carried passengers between small regional airports that were too thin for jet service but needed something more substantial than a single-engine piston twin. As regional jets eventually displaced the Model 99 from passenger service, the airframes found a second career in cargo feeder operations — flying overnight package routes for FedEx, UPS, and regional cargo carriers — a role many continue to fly today, decades after the last new Model 99 left Beechcraft's Wichita line in 1987. Total production: 239 airframes.
The unmistakable low-wing twin-turboprop silhouette of the Model 99 — long, flat fuselage; high-aspect-ratio wing; tall vertical tail — is a recognizable scale subject in RC twin-engine flying, particularly for pilots who want a civilian-aviation alternative to the more common WWII warbird twins.
In the simulator
A satisfying twin-engine scale subject. The Model 99's low-wing layout and substantial inertia make it an honest twin-engine training platform — equal throttle handling, asymmetric input as needed, and the kind of pattern flying a real Beech 99 pilot would recognize. Pairs well with airport-class landscapes that have proper runways and approach patterns. A civilian counterpoint to the military twins in this same pack — same multi-engine discipline, very different intended mission.
