Page 10 - Volume 13 Number 12

LEARN MORE
Visit these websites to learn more about the nonprofits and organizations
supported by the Wheels Up Cares fleet:
TAPS: www.taps.org
American Heart Association: http://www.heart.org/
Simon’s Heart: www.simonsheart.org
Janet Burros Memorial Foundation: http://www.janetburros.org/
Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai:
https://www.mountsinai.org/locations/dubin-breast-center
The pink King Air 350i that launched the Wheels Up Cares program continues to raise general awareness for Breast Cancer and the Dubin Breast Center of The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai in New York City.
He added: “The Beechcraft King Air 350i is the perfect aircraft for Wheels Up due to its proven track record, tremendous flexibility and its efficiency for regional travel. It is a much more cost­effective way to fly short­ haul missions, providing access to hard­to­reach places, but with all the creature comforts. It also provides the segment’s greenest aircraft, taking more passengers farther on less fuel for consistent savings with the lowest operating cost per seat mile.”
The Wheels Up Cares fleet
OEM Textron Aviation and Wheels Up have worked together to conceptualize and design the exterior paint schemes for the four aircraft. For example, on the camouflage airplane they tried out several camo patterns before landing on U.S. woodland camo and selecting the colors within the design. Many concepts were created and a variety of colors tested including matte versus glossy paint. The result is four greens and one white in standard glossy paint.
Textron Aviation completes the painting process in Wichita, Kansas. The first step in painting the camo aircraft, a 2014 King Air 350i, was to strip the aircraft from its current paint. Once the aircraft was stripped the paint team started by painting the lightest color. Then, using a vinyl mask to protect the previously applied color, each additional paint color was layered on top. Once all four colors had been added to the white base coat, the paint team went back through for final touchup.
Here’s a look at the four King Air 350i aircraft now flying in the Wheels Up Cares fleet.
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
= The Camo King Air
Bonnie Carroll founded TAPS two years after the death of her husband in an Army C­12 plane crash on Nov. 12, 1992. A retired Air Force major, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2015 for her ongoing efforts through her military career and TAPS to provide support to the families of fallen service members.
She found few resources when she needed them, so she built TAPS from the ground up. Over the past 25 years, the organization has assisted about 90,000 people grieving a relative or friend who died while serving in the military. TAPS averages 19 new survivors seeking assistance every day and pairs them one­on­one with a volunteer peer mentor who has suffered a similar loss, whether the match is relationship to the deceased, manner of death, branch of the military, geography or another factor.
TAPS connects survivors with grief and trauma resources and also runs its own programs, from seminars and retreats for adults to camps for children. They operate a national resource and information helpline for all who have been impacted by a death in the Armed Forces.
Because the organization receives no government funding and survivors pay nothing for support, donations and spreading the word about their services through efforts like Wheels Up Cares are vital.
“Our organization is funded entirely by donations from individuals, foundations and corporations,” said Katie Maness, TAPS’ senior advisor and director of
DECEMBER 2019