Beech Lightning

[donv]

Fascinating article about the still-born Beech Lightning, which would have been a 331-powered pressurized Bonanza.

https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/03/what-doomed-the-beech-lightning/

Although I think blaming the Beech sales people for not wanting the 331 was not the right reason. There are a couple of reasons in the comments below (including one from an engineer who worked on the project).

Personally, I think the real reason had to do with Garrett's unwillingness to match Pratt's OEM pricing.

[SKYFLYER]

Great article... Would have been pretty awesome if the prototype had survived even as a one-off.

Consider a King Air 200 with 331-14's now that would be an image to behold for sure.

[Steve binnette]

Really interesting article.  If Beech could have seen in to the future they would have invested the required dollars.  Back then when you moved up you went to a twin!

The engineers comments were enlightening.  Seems like they could have derated the engine more as a way to reduce stab forces on GA.

I wonder how much TO power was available during testing.

[donv]

It probably had to have a new tail, which they (according to the engineer's comments) designed but never built.

You would think they would look at pulling it off the shelf now, but the same issue with OEM pricing of the 331 would probably cause the same problems.