Representative image2728ATwin turboprop
1994 Beechcraft 1900D
- Airframe
- 39,538 h
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Representative image19-seat regional turboprop· 3 in stock now
The Beechcraft 1900D is the definitive 19-seat regional airliner: stand-up headroom, airline-certified systems, 280 kt cruise and the ability to fly nineteen passengers into strips that end scheduled service for anything larger. Production ran to 2002 with over 400 built.
Its combination of capacity and rough-field tolerance keeps the type in front-line commercial, corporate-shuttle and utility service worldwide — nowhere more than in Africa.
The aircraft
The 1900 was Beechcraft's answer to the American commuter-airline boom: a pressurised 19-seater developed directly from the Super King Air to compete with the Swearingen Metro and BAe Jetstream. The prototype flew on 3 September 1982, FAA certification followed in November 1983, and the original 1900C entered airline service in February 1984, hauling passengers on the thin feeder routes that deregulation had opened up.
The definitive version came when Beechcraft accepted that commuter passengers would no longer crouch. The 1900D, first flown in 1990 and in service from 1991, deepened the fuselage to give genuine stand-up headroom of around 71 inches, added larger doors and windows, and fitted PT6A-67D engines of close to 1,300 shp each — with winglets, tailets and stabilons managing the aerodynamics of the taller body. It kept the King Air family's rough-field manners while gaining true airline systems and certification.
Production ended in October 2002 as US regionals moved to 50-seat jets, after 695 aircraft across all 1900 versions — comfortably the best-selling 19-seat airliner in history, with over 400 of them 1900Ds. The American commuter routes it was built for have largely gone, but the aircraft found its second life where the mission never changed: African, island and remote-region operators flying nineteen seats into strips and sectors no jet can serve economically.
Key figures
Standard published figures for a typically equipped Beechcraft 1900D. Individual airframes vary with configuration and modification — the specification on a listing is what governs.
Available now
Where it reaches
Click the map to move the origin to your base and see how far the 1900D reaches at 70, 90 and 100 per cent of published range.
The broker’s view
1900Ds trade on cycles, corrosion state and the PT6A-67D's position in its overhaul cycle — an engine change is a meaningful fraction of hull value, so timing against TBO is the negotiation. Demand from African and island operators is persistent, and clean, well-recorded airframes move quickly.
We currently stock the type and its engines; few brokers know the 1900 market from as close.
The family
The 1984 original, low-cabin and airline-configured, with an airstair and cargo door. Later C-1 airframes replaced the bladder tanks with a wet wing for more fuel. Now mostly freight and utility machines at freight and utility prices.
The wet-wing development of the C, with simpler fuel logistics and better range. The pick of the low-cabin aircraft for cargo conversion, and the bulk of surviving C-model airframes.
From 1991: the stand-up cabin, bigger doors and windows, and PT6A-67D power. This is the version passengers and charterers expect, and it commands a decisive premium over any C — for passenger work there is no real contest.
Common questions
Nineteen in the standard airline configuration — the most permitted without a flight attendant — with corporate shuttle layouts seating fewer in more comfort.
Published maximum range is around 1,356 NM; typical revenue sectors run one to three hours with full or near-full cabins.
It is built for the mission: unpaved-capable, tolerant of heat and altitude, simple to support, and sized exactly for thin regional routes that cannot fill a larger aircraft.
Among the lowest seat-mile costs of any pressurised 19-seater: PT6A economics, commodity parts and no flight-attendant requirement. The engines dominate the budget — a pair of PT6A-67D overhauls is a large fraction of hull value, so engine position drives both cost planning and purchase price.
Different missions. The Twin Otter wins on genuinely unprepared bush strips and STOL work; the 1900D is pressurised, nearly 100 knots faster and far more comfortable over sectors of an hour or more. For scheduled regional routes with real distances, the 1900D is the airliner of the two.
Yes. Hundreds remain in commercial service worldwide, Textron still supports the type, and the PT6A-67D is a current, widely overhauled engine. Africa in particular has deep 1900 engineering experience, and high-use freight fleets in North America keep the parts pipeline commercially healthy.
Buying or selling, the conversation costs nothing. Tell us the mission and the budget and we will tell you honestly whether the 1900D — or something else — is the right airframe for it.
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