De Havilland Canada E-9 Widget

The de Havilland Canada E-9 Widget is a twin-turboprop surveillance and telemetry aircraft that the United States Air Force flies over the Gulf of Mexico ranges. It is a modified Dash 8, picked in the 1980s for the 53rd Weapons Evaluation Group because the Dash 8 could carry the large conformal antenna of the AN/APS-128D radar that rival proposals could not, and it replaced the larger and costlier EC-135N ARIA for this job. Its first flight was made in secrecy in 1987 and it entered service in June 1988 with the 82nd Aerial Targets Squadron at Tyndall Air Force Base. Two aircraft carry a crew of four, two pilots and two mission operators, and they check that civilian boats and planes are clear of the range before live missile launches, relay telemetry from test missiles and target drones, and locate drones that have been shot down. It is kept here as its own model because it is a distinct mission variant with its own designation and service record, not a Dash 8 airliner.