Blackhawk XR Upgrade Kit Certified By FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has given Blackhawk the Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for its XR Upgrade Kit designed for the King Air 350-series. The XR kit allows a number of performance increases over the standard King Air 350. Notably there is a 30 to 40-knot increase in the cruising speed of the aircraft. The Maximum Take Off Weight (MTOW) of the aircraft also increases to 16,500 lbs. Climb performance is also better reaching FL350 in 18 minutes.
The factory powerplant of the King Air 350 is the Pratt & Whitney PT6A-60A and connected to those are four-bladed aluminum propellers. The new setup from Blackhawk gives more powerful 1,200-shp PT6A-67A engines that use lighter composite props that are five-bladed. Aiding performance is the slightly lighter weight. There is a gain of 220 lbs on the empty weight among other advantages. For more information: Blackhawk Aerospace 150 West Park Loop, Suite 106 Huntsville, AL 35806 www.blackhawk.aero ***
