U.S. ARMY U21-A BEECH AIRCRAFT PHOTO

Description

On July 14, Beech announced a new type, and a month later began accepting orders for the "King Air", with deliveries to commence in Autumn 1964. On January 24, 1964, the first definitive prototype, by now designated
and also fitted with PT6A-6 engines, flew for the first time. After 10 months of test flying, in 1964 the Model 87 was delivered to the      U.S. ARMY as the NU-8F. The first production aircraft was delivered on October 8, and by the end of the month, 152 aircraft had been ordered; by year's end, seven had been built.
In 1966, after 112 65-90s were completed, production switched to the            65-A90 with PT6A-20 engines. As a measure of the type's popularity, 206 65-A90s were built in less than two years when production switched to  the first of these rolling off the production line in 1968. Military versions built during these years, all being unpressurised models based on the Model 87. These were produced for the US Army which designated them U-21s of various sub-models; many were fitted out for electronic battlefield surveillance. A total of 162 of these were built between 1967 and 1971