The University of Tennessee purchased a new airplane to replace the one purchased by the university in 1985. 

The new airplane is a Beech King Air 350 turbo prop that costs $5.2 million. The university will receive $825,000 for trading in the 30-year-old King Air 200 plane, bringing the overall cost to $4.4 million. The aircraft is expected to arrive in February 2008 from the vendor, Beechcraft.

The old plane has done almost 13,000 flight hours, and 415 of those were in the 2007 fiscal year. The national industry average for the King Air 200 is 370 flight hours a year, and 10,730 flight hours over 29 years according to Conklin and de Decker, an aviation research and consulting firm hired by the university for cost analysis and to confirm the financial reasons for the purchase.

"The financial advantages of warranties , equipment upgrades, pilot training being included, and the trade-in allowance for the old plane made the factory purchase the most attractive bid," said UT Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Gary Rogers.

The King Air 200's engines need to be overhauled every 3,000 flight hours and have a mid-cycle inspection.  Since the purchase of the plane in 1985, the engines have been overhauled three times with an increased cost each time equalling a total of $1,112,000.

The plane is availabe for use by employees in all the departments at the university, including the UT athletic department. The departments are billed for the expenses.

A large majority of the flights are within Tennessee, and 89 percent of those flights are between Knoxville and Nashville or another UT campus. According to the press release, a corporate plane is most cost effective. Tennessee is about 500 miles across, and UT has offices, institutes and campuses in each of the 95 counties.