King Air 350
ICAO B350A stretched King Air used for transport and, increasingly, as a cheap surveillance platform. Live King Air 350 positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30sAirframe
- Manufacturer
- Beechcraft
- Role
- Utility transport and surveillance
- Class
- L2T — Landplane, 2 turboprop engines
- Crew
- 2
- First flight
- 1988
- In service
- 1990
Operators airborne
About the King Air 350
The 350 is the bigger King Air — longer fuselage, winglets, more power — and it has found a second career as a surveillance aircraft. Fitting a sensor turret and a datalink to a business turboprop turns out to be a remarkably cost-effective way to watch the ground for hours, and several air forces have done exactly that.
Britain flies it as the Shadow R1, a special forces support aircraft that has seen a great deal of operational use. The US Army, Australia, Greece, Turkey, France and others operate transport and surveillance versions.
On the feed the two roles look quite different. A transport flies point to point; a surveillance aircraft orbits one spot for hours at a time.
Callsign prefixes
- RRR
- Ascot — Royal Air Force Shadow R1
- PAT
- Priority Air Transport — US Army
- ASY
- Aussie — Royal Australian Air Force
How to recognise it
- —A King Air with a noticeably longer cabin and upturned winglets, which the 200 lacks.
- —Surveillance aircraft carry a sensor ball under the forward fuselage and extra blade aerials.
- —Slow orbits over one location suggest surveillance rather than transport.
Common questions
+ What is the Shadow R1?
The Royal Air Force designation for its King Air 350CER surveillance aircraft, used to support special forces. They are based at RAF Waddington and are among the more frequently seen British aircraft on ADS-B.
+ How is the 350 different from the C-12?
It is a stretched, more powerful development of the same family with winglets and a longer cabin. The C-12 designation covers the King Air 200; the 350 reports as a separate ADS-B designator.
+ Why use a business turboprop for surveillance?
Cost. A King Air with a sensor turret costs a fraction of a purpose-built aircraft to buy and to fly per hour, and for watching a fixed area for hours that is most of what matters.