Saab ships first aft airframe section for Boeing’s T-7A trainer

This is a key delivery in the engineering and manufacturing development programme to its T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer aircraft partner, Boeing.

The production and shipment of this aft airframe section is the latest milestone in Saab’s contribution to the design and development of the T-7A Red Hawk trainer for the US Air Force.

This shipment is from Saab’s Linköping site in Sweden to Boeing in St. Louis, Missouri.

On completion of this production phase, Saab’s brand new facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, will undertake Saab’s production of the aft sections for the T-7A program.

Jonas Hjelm, senior vice president and head of Saab Aeronautics, commented: “The T-7A Red Hawk represents a remarkable engineering feat of aircraft development; all achieved through excellent collaboration with Boeing and the use of digital engineering and advanced manufacturing. It has been extremely rewarding to pioneer this accelerated development timeline and to deliver the resulting accuracy, visibility, and communication into production,” said

The aft fuselage was designed and built by Saab, under the T-7A partnership with Boeing.

Upon arrival in St Louis, the Saab aft section will be spliced to the forward fuselage, prior to installation of the wings, fins and tail assembly to become a complete static test airframe. This airframe will be used for structural testing on the ground during the EMD phase of the program.

The T-7A Red Hawk is an all-new advanced pilot training system designed for the US Air Force to train the next generation of combat pilots for decades to come.

The aircraft has benefited from Saab and Boeing’s digital approach to military aircraft design, engineering and production, which saw the preceding T-X aircraft go from concept to first flight in just 36 months.

www.saab.com