INDUSTRY REPORT
Boeing revealed a few more details about its T-X training aircraft at the Paris Air Show in June and how this platform could evolve into new roles.
THE US AIR Force is getting closer to receiving its brand new jet training aircraft — the Boeing T-X. The company is still awaiting a formal announcement from the air force on a numeric identity and name for the aircraft, but squadron personnel have already commenced familiarization flights in the initial two development aircraft. The USAF is replacing its venerable, 60-year-old, T-38 Talons with Boeing’s all-new ‘clean-sheet’ aircraft, which was announced as the winner of the T-X competition on September 27, 2018. T-X was the first major acquisition program to be run under the USAF’s ‘Bending the Cost Curve’ initiative. Boeing won because its jet ticked all the boxes when it came to performance, plus it offered a unit cost of under $20 million, which left its mature competitors in the dust. Speaking at June’s Paris Air Show, Boeing’s Thom Breckenridge, vice president of international sales, told reporters that the company expects a global market for some 2,600 advanced jet trainers in the era of its T-X. It knows it’s tapping into huge po…
