Aircraft List

The NASA Airborne Science Program provides a unique set of NASA supported aircraft that benefit the earth science community. These manned and unmanned aircraft carry the sensors that provide data to support and augment NASA spaceborne missions.

Reminder: All investigators with approved or pending proposals from the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) announcements that have a requirement for a NASA Airborne Science platform/instrument, must submit a Flight Request. The Flight Request is also the method to acquire an estimate if your proposal requires a cost estimate for Airborne Science support. However, for investigators proposing to participate on large, multi-aircraft experiments, a single Flight Request will be submitted for each mission by the Project Manager or Project Scientist. The Science Operations Flight Request System (SOFRS) can be reached directly at https://airbornescience.nasa.gov/sofrs.

Non-NASA Aircraft
NASA instrumentation may fly on non-NASA Federal aircraft as well as academic and commercial platforms for which agreements for access by SMD investigators are in place, in process, or have recently been approved by NASA Aviation Management as airworthy and safe to operate. For more information, please review the current ASP Call Letter for further requirements and guidance. Please note that in addition to filing the required Flight Request, investigators are responsible for contacting vendors to determine if the platform meets the requirements of the proposed scientific investigation. It is also the responsibility of the investigator to ensure that before any preliminary test flights or actual data collection flights utilizing NASA personnel, instruments or funds occur, all vendors successfully complete a NASA airworthiness/flight safety review in accordance with NASA Aviation Safety Policy for Non-NASA Aircraft.

Beachcraft King Air 200T

The King Air 200T is a seven-place all-metal, low-wing, twin-engine airplane with retractable tricycle landing gear, and a T-style horizontal and vertical stabilizer. Main cabin entrance is gained through an air stair door on the left-hand rear fuselage. A removable window provides additional emergency egress over the right-hand wing. The baggage area is located in the rear cabin area. Two Pratt and Whitney PT6A-41 turboprop engines, turning Hartzell three-bladed constant speed propellers power the aircraft. The aircraft is fully IFR capable, and is certified for known-icing conditions. This aircraft is equipped with dual IFR approach certified GPS moving maps, VOR, ILS, and ADF navigation equipment, as well as an Autopilot/Flight Director system, and a Radar Altimeter. On board weather radar and satellite weather downlink are also installed. Communications include aviation VHF, UHF, HF, Iridium SATCOM, and marine VHF-FM. The addition of any equipment (GPS, ARDS, HDIS, etc.) is installed under the FAA field approval process, inspected by persons holding an FAA Airframe & Powerplant Inspection Authorization (IA) and are recorded on the FAA Form 337, Major Repair and Alteration form. The electrical system is powered by two 28 Volts DC engine driven starter-generators. The generators have a constant current rating of 300 amps each. The aircraft is capable of providing up to 2.8 KVA for mission equipment. Alternating current requirements are handled with the addition of static inverters. Both single-phase 60 Hz, and 3-phase 400 Hz power is available at 115 VAC. This aircraft can be configured for ARDS with associated “L” Band and L1/L2 GPS antennas. Electrical protection is designed such that flight essential busses do not power project packages and wiring and components are selected for their compliance with FAA Advisory Circular AC43.13-1B. Structural and electrical/avionics alterations comply with CFR 14 Parts 43 and 91. The aircraft has an approximate on station endurance of 5.5 hours with IFR reserves.

Owner/Operator: 
Airtec
Type: 
Conventional Aircraft
Duration: 
5.4 hours (payload and weather dependent)
Useful Payload: 
5,200 lbs
Gross Take-off Weight: 
14,000 lbs
Onboard Operators: 
3
Max Altitude: 
35,000 MSL
Air Speed: 
244 knots
Range: 
1,300 Nmi
Power: 
850 SHP x 2