Beechcraft King Air 350

Updated: October 2026 – A twin-engine turboprop with a T-tail rolls past general aviation, the fuselage is surprisingly long, small winglets stand at the wingtips – and perhaps a strange pod hangs under the belly. Good chance you are looking at a Beechcraft King Air 350. It is the largest member of the King Air family and has developed from a business aircraft into a versatile platform for special missions. Here you will learn how to recognize it, how it differs from the King Air 200 and which variants exist.

What is the King Air 350?

The King Air 350 is a twin-engine pressurized turboprop, built for business travel, charter and special tasks. It belongs to the Super King Air line that Beechcraft founded with the King Air 200, and sits at its top end. The manufacturer today is Textron Aviation in Wichita, Kansas, where the Beechcraft brand has been carried on since Textron’s acquisition of Beechcraft. In between, Beech belonged to Raytheon and later to Hawker Beechcraft – which is why you find different manufacturer names in registers depending on the year of manufacture.

The direct predecessor was the King Air 300. Its prototype flew on September 3, 1983, and deliveries began in 1984. The 300 received more powerful PT6A-60A engines in newly shaped nacelles with a round air inlet. Beechcraft built the 350 on that: the fuselage was stretched by almost 0.9 meters, so the main cabin is longer than five meters. The wingspan grew by about a meter, and winglets at the wingtips were added from the factory. In 1990 the Super King Air 350 went on sale, officially listed under the type designation B300. In the same year the first freighter version, the B300C with a large cargo door, was delivered.

By the end of 2009, by common estimates 687 aircraft of the B300 type had been built, plus a few dozen B300Cs. Of the 350i, built from 2009, more than 440 were delivered in less than ten years. That makes the series one of the most successful turboprops in its class.

The variants at a glance

The King Air 350 was developed continuously over three decades. From the outside the versions look very similar; the differences lie mainly in the cabin, cockpit, tanks and weight.

Version	Key data	Special feature
350 (B300)	from 1990	base version, stretched King Air 300 with winglets
350C (B300C)	from 1990	large cargo door at the rear left
350ER	certified 2007	extra tanks in the engine nacelles, higher takeoff weight, strengthened landing gear
350i / 350iER	from late 2009	quieter, redesigned cabin, modernized systems
360 / 360ER	certified 2020	autothrottle and digital cabin pressure control as standard, touchscreen cockpit

The 350ER is particularly interesting for spotters. Beechcraft presented it in June 2005 at the Paris Air Show; in November 2007 the manufacturer announced US certification. It carries the additional fuel in tanks in the engine nacelles. The higher takeoff weight of up to about 7.5 tonnes required a sturdier landing gear. The ER is designed for long surveillance flights: according to the manufacturer’s mission profile, after a 100-nautical-mile transit it manages more than seven hours of low-altitude observation and returns with a 45-minute reserve.

The King Air 360 was introduced in August 2020 and certified by the FAA in October 2020, with EASA following in September 2021. Textron quotes a cruise speed of up to 312 knots and a range of up to 1,806 nautical miles for it; the 360ER reaches 2,539 nautical miles. In the cockpit, three large touchscreen displays from Collins Aerospace do the work, joined by an autothrottle and digital control of the pressurized cabin.

How to recognize the King Air 350

All Super King Airs have the distinctive T-tail, two PT6A turboprops and the typical King Air nose. You can separate the 350 from its smaller siblings with three looks.

As always, the final confirmation comes from the registration. In Germany the King Air 350 falls into class D-C because of its weight, while the lighter King Air 90s usually fly with D-I. How the weight classes work is covered in the guide German aircraft registrations; more generally, Understanding aircraft registrations will help you.

King Air 350, 200, 1900D or PC-12?

Among business turboprops there are a few types that look alike at first glance. The finder helps you narrow it down.

You can find more about the neighbors on the pages for the King Air 200, the Beechcraft 1900D, the Pilatus PC-12 and the Piaggio P.180 Avanti. If you spend time at fields with a lot of utility traffic, you will also often come across the single-engine Cessna 208 Caravan and the high-wing Dornier Do 228, which is used for similar survey and surveillance tasks. For a broad overview, see the article How to tell turboprops apart.

Special missions: the King Air 350’s second career

What sets the 350 apart from many other business aircraft is its role as a platform for special missions. A pressurized cabin, range, rugged engines and the option of mounting sensors under the fuselage make it attractive for military, government agencies and research.

MC-12W Liberty: At the end of the 2000s the US Air Force quickly needed additional reconnaissance capacity. The solution was the MC-12W, based on the King Air 350 and above all the 350ER. It flew its first combat mission on June 10, 2009, in Iraq, and was also deployed in Afghanistan. In the end the fleet comprised 42 aircraft, most of them 350ERs. In October 2015 the last combat deployment under the Air Force ended, and the aircraft went to the US Army and to the Special Operations Command, SOCOM.

C-12 Huron: Under this collective designation, various King Air models fly with the US armed forces for liaison, transport and special tasks, including variants based on the 350 such as the UC-12W.

Shadow R1: The Royal Air Force operates modified King Air 350CERs as reconnaissance aircraft under the name Shadow R1 with No. 14 Squadron at RAF Waddington. At first there were four aircraft; in 2013 the fleet was expanded to six. In addition, from 2011 the UK used four King Air 350s as the Avenger T1 trainer.

Other users: Japan’s army aviation operates B300s under the designation LR-2, the Australian air force uses King Air 350s for navigator training, among other things, and the US weather and ocean agency NOAA flies a 350CER with two large downward-facing sensor openings for survey flights. The Swiss Air Force also received a specially modified B300C with a modified fuselage floor for aerial photography.

Flight inspection: Even its predecessor, the King Air 300, existed as a special version for checking navigation aids – in 1987 and 1988 the US aviation authority FAA received 19 such aircraft. The 350 is also used by various operators to survey radio beacons and instrument landing systems.

Spotting strategy in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

The King Air 350 is not an airliner, but shows up where business, charter and special traffic goes. You have good chances at regional airports and at larger airports with their own area for general aviation. How to approach such places is covered in Spotting at regional airports and Spotting general aviation. Since King Airs often park next to business jets, a look at Spotting business jets is also worthwhile.

The movements you are most likely to catch include:

• Business and charter flights between regional and major airports
• Survey and calibration flights, often with conspicuous traffic patterns and low approaches
• Air ambulance and patient transport flights
• Ferry flights to maintenance shops and shipyards

Because the King Air often plans at short notice, a look at flight trackers is worthwhile. Filter by the type code B350 and see which aircraft are approaching your airport. How that works is explained in the guide Flight tracking with ADS-B. Whether your sighting is more everyday or a stroke of luck, you can gauge with How to judge the rarity of a sighting.

Photo tips specifically for the King Air 350

At a good 14 meters long, the King Air 350 is much smaller than an airliner, and its most important features are in the details.

You can calculate in advance when the light works at your spot – how that works is covered in the guide Planning the sun position for your photo spot. If you are getting into the world of smaller aircraft, Recognizing light aircraft will also help you.

Common mix-ups and how to rule them out

Conclusion

The King Air 350 is the largest and most versatile member of one of the most successful turboprop families in aviation history. As a business aircraft it has been in service since 1990, and as a special-mission platform it has shaped reconnaissance, surveying and training with armed forces and government agencies worldwide. With the King Air 360 the line lives on.