James,

King Air appears to be the result of generations of add-ons. Most
fuselage stations look different from each other.

You broke the code. The King Air evolved from the Twin Bonanza and
then the Queen Air.

It's a lovely flying airplane, so it's beautiful in that respect, but
it's slow as molasses for a turboprop.

I always wondered why Beech had allowed such poor aerodynamics on the
Duke (the thing is drag incarnate); then realized that had they cleaned
it up, it would have been substantially faster than the King Air, which
would not have done their turbine marketing any good at all.

All the best,
Rick