![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/PHOTO-NOAA-King-Air-N65RF-arrives-Lakeland-FL-taxis-to-NOAA-Aircraft-Operations-Center-Hangar-012624-credit-Sophie-Talbert-NOAA.webp?resize=876%2C493&ssl=1\")
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration just added a third Beechcraft King Air to its specialized aircraft fleet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Beechcraft King Air 360 CER turboprop is configured to support NOAA coastal mapping missions and aerial surveys of damage in communities after events like hurricanes, tornadoes, or flooding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a camera bay in the aircraft belly and workstations for sensor operators. The plane can get and process vital aerial imagery and give emergency managers a quick understanding of conditions on the ground.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Workers at Textron Aviation in Wichita built the plane. Avcon Industries in Newton modified it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis new, high-performance aircraft will greatly enhance NOAA\u2019s ability to collect data vital to forecasters, researchers, and emergency managers,\u201d NOAA Corps Rear Adm. Nancy Hann said in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe NOAA King Air aircraft contains cutting-edge technology that is helping unlock new capabilities for weather forecasting and data collection,\u201d U.S. Senator Jerry Moran of Kansas said. \u201cI worked to secure funding for this aircraft to expand the great work being done at Textron\u2019s Wichita location to aid in NOAA\u2019s mission of forecasting extreme weather and responding to flooding, drought, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are honored the King Air 360CER aircraft continues to be the aircraft of choice to fill a variety of critical mission needs for NOAA,\u201d Ron Draper, Textron Aviation president and CEO, said. \u201cThe aircraft\u2019s ability to carry a wide range of special mission equipment, combined with its extended range performance, makes it a powerful and reliable platform to carry out the agency\u2019s unique missions during aerial surveys of damage in communities after events like hurricane landfall, tornadoes or flooding.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
NOAA says its fleet of three King Air 350 CERs enables the team to train aviators, maintain airframes, and meet data requirements for missions conducting:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
- \n
- High-resolution coastal mapping to ensure safe navigation and management of coastal resources,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Snow and soil moisture surveys to aid water resource management and flood forecasting,<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Arctic monitoring and remote marine mammal population surveys, and<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Weather and air chemistry research.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
The newest addition to the fleet is at the NOAA Aircraft Operations Center in Lakeland, Florida.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A plane built in Wichita will aid weather experts during major weather events, and it is not the first Wichita plane that is helping. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":41591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[7441],"class_list":["post-41590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-how-a-wichita-plane-can-help-noaa-in-emergencies"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}