By David Neal
On January 14, King Air Nation had the pleasure of not only seeing first Nextant G90XT up close and in person, but also the opportunity to see it fly. As a fan of most all things King Air, I must say I was quite excited as we taxied onto Nextant’s ramp at CGF and were parked right next to there latest development.
Upon deplaning at the Nextant facility, we were greeted by many members of the staff. These included members from the marketing, maintenance, and pilot teams, as well as several members of upper management. Our group was treated to a gracious lunch with several Nextant employees and then the real fun began. We were escorted to a rather large hangar that housed 400XT’s (Nextant’s first remanufactured aircraft) in various stages of remanufacture and N190XT, which had been moved in from the cold while we were enjoying lunch.
From the outside, there are not too many differences that one will easily notice. The air intakes on the pitot cowlings are a little different shape than the stock cowls from Beech and the engine nacelles are extended about five inches farther forward to accommodate the new GE H75 Engine. Inside, I noticed a nice new panel with a Garmin G1000 installed, and then realized a few things were missing. The flap indicator is no longer on the panel. It’s integrated into the Garmin. Pressurization controls? In the Garmin. Fuel gauges? IN THE GARMIN! The fuel controls have even been completely changed and moved from the Captain’s side panel to the panel just above the throttle quadrant. Nextant has done a really nice job cleaning up the cockpit and giving it a more modern look and feel.
Finally, we were treated to the largest surprise of the day. Our KAN crew had the opportunity to fly in a photo shot with the G90XT. From our view in the camera ship, The G90XT looked really sharp in its new paint job above the cloud layer that covered the Cleveland area that afternoon. The pictures from our cameras and phones (we had no idea we would get this opportunity) didn’t come out perfect, but the professional camera crew we were with got some great shots, and King Air Nation was the only media outlet there!
Stay with us as we continue to track the flight-testing progress of the G90XT and its entry into the twin turbo prop market.
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About the Author: David Neal
David Neal serves as one of KingAirNation’s technical advisors, and has accumulated over 8000 hours of flight time, with over 5000 of those hours being in King Airs, over the past 20 years. He currently is head of the Aircraft Sales division of Davis Aviation in Brandon, Mississippi. For more information, visit www.davisaviation.com.