Photos courtesy Textron Aviation
Five Beechcraft King Air turboprops participated in the ninth Special Olympics Airlift to support the Special Olympics USA Games in Minnesota, where children and adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities compete in Olympic-type sports on a national level.
Led by Cessna and Beechcraft and organized by Textron Aviation, approximately 130 Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker aircraft, known as Doves, departed from airports across the country on June 19 to take more than 800 athletes and coaches to St. Paul Downtown Airport (KSTP) and returned to the Twin Cities on June 27 to deliver the teams and their competition medals to their home airports.
Special Olympics never charges athletes to participate. Admission, registration, training and competition expenses are covered through donations, sponsorships and fundraising. Travel, however, remains one of the largest costs for state programs sending athletes to the USA Games, making the airlift an invaluable resource.
Dove 2, the second of all the Doves to depart their assigned airports on arrival day, was a King Air B300 that supported Team Indiana. Dove 35 was a King Air 350i transporting Team Michigan participants. A King Air B200, Dove 48 helped Arkansas athletes get to and from the games. Another B200, Dove 86, assisted Team DC.
A King Air 350 owned by House of Raeford Farms and operating as Dove 54 transported six athletes, a coach and a North Carolina Special Olympics staff member from Raleigh to KSTP and back home. The family-owned company – one of the nation’s top poultry producers – said in a news release it donated its aircraft and pilots for the second consecutive Special Olympics Airlift. Their passengers returned home with gold medals in the Unified Small Team Level One cheerleading competition.
The Special Olympics Airlift is considered the world’s largest cumulative peacetime airlift spanning more than 40 years and nine coordinated airlifts. Every four years, it demonstrates how aviation can unite communities and expand access to participation for athletes with intellectual disabilities through a dignified and celebratory travel experience.
Volunteer pilots and aircraft from across the country donate their time and resources. In 2026, flights launched from 26 locations nationwide with sendoff celebrations coordinated by local communities bidding farewell to their Special Olympics delegations. Combining arrival and departure days for all Doves, travel distance reached approximately 300,000 nautical miles.
Over four decades, the initiative has transported more than 10,000 athletes and coaches to Special Olympics events, giving them a first-class experience ahead of the competition and demonstrating the scale, reliability and generosity of the aviation community.