Beechcraft U-21 Ute

Aircraft Information
Aircraft Make: Beechcraft
Aircraft Model: U-21
Aircraft Nickname: Ute
Aircraft Mil Civ Description: Airplane ME Turboprop
FAA Category and Class: Airplane ME Land
Engine Description: Twin Engine

First Flown Information
Sequence First Flown: 61
Date First Flown: 09/05/1989 [error: actual first flight 2/10/1989]
Location First Flown: NAS Patuxent River, MD
Who and/or What Organization First Flown With: Lynn Hanks (at TPS?)

Aircraft Experience
As of: 05/08/2020
Number of Hours Flown: 401
Number of Times Flown: 199
Other Aircraft Models Associated: King Air 90, 200, 300; C-12, T-44

Recollections: The U-21’s I flew at USNTPS were owned by the US Army. The Army supports the “Navy” Test Pilot school by providing a bunch of aircraft, instructors, and maintenance support and, in turn, USNTPS is really the “Army Test Pilot School” too. The Air Force Test Pilot School doesn’t have a rotary wing curriculum so Navy is the “only game in town” for training of helicopter test pilots in the Military. Yes, there’s a civilian school too, and they have helo’s–> National TPS. But, I digress. So, the U-21’s at USNTPS were mostly the “Square window” version. These airplanes–which were produced in low numbers and, I think, not really appreciated by the Army very much–were essentially a morphed “Queen Air” (the recip-powered Beech) with PT6 turboprops. No pressurization (square windows and pressurization don’t go together). I’m surprised I have 400 hours in the U-21 but a look at the logbook shows a bunch of flights for teaching flight test techniques for Asymmetric Power (Vmca) and more for an early excercise for “ILS-Flight Director evaluation”. She was a work horse. She was a King Air.