UW received $250,000 from the Wyoming Legislature to replace its research aircraft, the Beechcraft King Air 200T, last month.
Many UW researchers said the current aircraft, which has flown for UW research missions for 38 years, is reaching its capacity. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) sets limits at 10,000 flight hours, and the research aircraft is rapidly approaching the 8,000 hour threshold, said Al Rodi, the facility manager for the research group King Air and director of UW’s Flight Center.
Rodi said while the plane is still safe to fly, the process to replace the plane, which includes establishing funding and installing the proper instrumentation, could take four or five years.
UW purchased the King Air in 1977 for $1 million. Additional millions have been spent on instrumentation and airframe modification, such as radar.
New installations as well as maintenance, become increasingly difficult over the years, said Jeff French, project manager of King Air and a UW assistant professor of atmospheric science, in a press release.
Many parts of the aircraft such as the engine can be maintained or replaced, but it is the airframe or body of the plane that is limited to 10,000 flight hours. The airframe begins to suffer from “metal fatigue” which can result in cracks and micro-cracks to the aircraft’s structural integrity, French said.
“The plane is subjected to a lot of high turbulent flying, which causes a lot of stress of the airplane,” Rodi said.
French said this is an opportunity to upgrade the technology on the aircraft. New technology cannot be retrofitted to the aircraft they are using now, which is about 40 years old.
“This will allow us to remain competitive, we also need to tap into significant upgrades in technology that aren’t available on our aircraft. It’s a two-pronged approach,” French said.
Rodi said UW plans to repurpose most of the technology on the current aircraft, but they also plan on enhancing their equipment to more modern technology.
Either French or Larry Oolman, another project manager, flies on every King Air flight for safety and mission purposes. The primary job of the project manager is to ensure the scientists and pilot communicate in such a way that leads to a successful mission, French said.
The university is a member of the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Lower Atmospheric Observing abilities (LAOF), and has been since 1987. French said about half of the research conducted with King Air is related to cloud physics. Another 30 percent focuses on aerosols and air quality. The remaining 20 percent of the aircraft’s research hours are spent on the exchange of energy between the surface of the Earth and its lower atmosphere.
Typical missions, which fly to altitudes of up to 28,000 feet, include studies of boundary layer structure, air-sea interactions, cloud and aerosol physics, troposphere profiling and atmospheric chemistry.
UW’s 38-year-old King Air research aircraft sits at an airport tarmac in Iceland. Last month, the state Legislature provided $250,000 in one-time funding for UW to begin planning for acquisition and equipping of a new research aircraft.
