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Otters before switching over to a Cessna Citation II that was conducting coastal mapping at the time.
The King Air 350CER
Sweeney flew the hurricane hunters and the Citation for several years and then camera equipment changes brought a change in platforms.
“We were switching from large-format film cameras to digital cameras, which have a lower resolution than film and required us to fly at lower altitudes,” Sweeney said. “It wasn’t efficient to fly the Citation at 7,000 to 10,000 feet and it had growing maintenance costs because of its age.”
A selection team chose the King Air 350CER for its performance, operating costs and versatility. While the aircraft is used primarily for coastal mapping and emergency response, NOAA wanted an airplane with the flexibility to be used for any of its line offices.
“We needed a multi-engine aircraft with legs that could get out to Hawaii, up to Alaska and down to the Caribbean without too much jumping around to get there,” Sweeney said. “We also wanted fuel efficiency and an airplane that could carry the camera payloads that we have. We also needed a platform with a good dash speed so that if we’re in the Pacific Northwest on a coastal mapping mission and something happens in the Southeast that requires an emergency response we would be able to be there quickly.”
NOAA’s King Air combines the extended range version of the 350 (an extra 1,580 pounds of fuel) with a 52-inch- by-49-inch cargo door. The agency purchased its 2009 Beechcraft King Air 350CER new from the factory and immediately sent it to Avcon Industries in Newton, Kansas, north of the Textron Aviation factory in Wichita.
NOAA’s King Air 350CER can carry an extra 1,580 pounds
of fuel for extended range and has a 52-inch-by-49-inch cargo door, with other interior special missions modifications. (PHOTO: DAVID HALL / NOAA)
Avcon installed modifications necessary for the King Air’s primary roles.
The aircraft’s main modification is two large, downward-facing sensor ports that can support a wide variety of remote sensing systems, including digital cameras, multispectral and hyperspectral sensors, and topographic and bathymetric LIDAR systems (measuring water depth using light detection and ranging).
“One port is right at the main cabin door and one is just a little forward of that,” Sweeney said. “They allow us to mount a camera or other sensor in a well in the floor. It shoots straight down through the floor of the plane through about an inch-and-a-half thick optical glass. It’s structural glass that maintains the pressure bulkhead of the plane and it’s optically clear so that it does not distort. There are telescoping doors that cover the glass when it’s not being used to protect that expensive optical glass.”
Sweeney said the King Air most often flies using a multi-camera system. That allows the crew to successfully fly coastal mapping missions that require cameras to be pointed straight down while also collecting oblique imagery of the shoreline that will be useful when assessing future damage to a particular area.
“Our camera systems allow us to do some sophisticated 3-D modeling of the entire shoreline,” Sweeney said. “Then after an event like a mudslide, earthquake or storm we can reassess and see what changes have taken place as a result of that event.”
The optical plates can be removed and the aircraft operated unpressurized, for example if the glass will degrade a laser signal. Other modifications include bubble windows that allow an observer to see down and two window blanks.
“As a product of all of the mods we have, the tail end of the airplane is very heavy,” Sweeney said. “We flew it for a couple of months in 2009 and we had some problems
AUGUST 2017
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 5