Raisbeck Engineering announced this week that they had received FAA certification of its 4-Blade Swept Propellers for the King Air 350 family.
The company will work on fulfilling the backlog of orders of the Raisbeck/Hartzell Swept Blade Propellers immediately. First production shipset is going to Raisbeck dealer Stevens Aviation in Dayton, Ohio for installation on Denison Aviation’s Indianpolis-based 350. The next shipset is headed to Elliot Aviation in Des Moines, Iowa for installation on Iowa State University’s 350. According to Raisbeck both aircrafts’ OEM propellers were up for overhaul.
The FAA certification is the result of a four-year development program, with two-and-a-half years of flight testing of five different designs, including three five-blade versions.
“This has been a most intense and interesting program, and included the flight-test evaluation of potential competitor products,” commented Keith Anderson, Engineering Vice President and Chief Engineer for Raisbeck. “Nowhere else have I had the luxury of testing other brands to introduce improvements prior to certification. The entire Swept Blade Propeller program with Hartzell—spanning the King Air 200 and C90/E90 series, and now the 350—has been a very rewarding program for all of us at Raisbeck.”
The company noted that since launching the Swept-Blade program, Raisbeck’s engineers have flight-tested 12 different propeller designs on King Airs.
Raisbeck has set initial production rate to be at four to five shipsets per month. It will be adjusted upward until supply meets current demand.
“We expect a steady initial flow of orders coming just from the annual 40-plus in-service fleet of OEM props facing their third overhaul—a perfect time to upgrade,” said Bill Cadow, Raisbeck’s Sales Vice President.
A companion EPIC Performance Package is also in the works for the 350, which includes a target increase in Maximum Power Cruise Speed of over 10 knots. This will be an option for 350 prop purchasers, and only offered with the Swept Blade Propellers. Raisbeck notes that current buyers of 350 propellers will be offered a special price if they want the EPIC Performance Package at a later date.