美 해군 차기 대잠/해상초계기 P-8A 양산형 초도비행 실시

 

 

First Production P-8A Is Airborne

Aviation Week.com, 07/19/2011

Author : Michael Mecham

 

The first of three production 737-derived Boeing P-8A maritime patrol aircraft that will be used in the U.S. Navy’s flight-test evaluations completed nearly 6 hr. of initial flight evaluations on July 7, Boeing announced July 19.

 

Besides putting the first production P-8A into the air, the flights also marked the first test of the CFM International CFM56-7BE engines on the P-8.

 

Three previous flight-test articles used standard CFM56-7Bs that do not have the lower fuel-burn improvements of the “evolved” engine series. The first 737 with these -7BE engines for a commercial customer is due for delivery shortly to China Southern Airlines. Combined with aerodynamic improvements, the engines should lower 737 fuel burn by 2%.

 

Called LRIP-1, the newest P-8A is the first of six low-rate initial production aircraft that Boeing is building under a $1.6 billion contract awarded in January.

 

Besides offering flight-test crews a chance to test the basic operating parameters of the aircraft and its engines, the second of the July 7 flights served to transfer the airplane from Boeing’s dedicated P-8 final assembly manufacturing line at its 737 factory in Renton, Wash., to the P-8 mission systems installation facility at Boeing Field in Seattle. The two factories are only about 10 mi. apart as the crow flies.

 

The LRIP contract calls for Boeing to produce three production-level aircraft for the P-8A flight-test program at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.

 

The flight-test aircraft already are at work. But they do not have the full mission systems suites of production aircraft.

 

LRIP-1 is to reach Patuxent River next year. After a year of flight testing it is slated to join the fleet in Jacksonville, Fla., in 2013.

 

The first day’s flight took off at 11:03 a.m. PDT and landed at 2:21 p.m. The aircraft was brought back to Renton for evaluation before a second flight at 5:11 p.m. and touching down at Boeing Field at 7:50 p.m.

 

 

  Boeing P-8A Poseidon (168428 / cn 40808 / ln 3612) ⓒ Andrew W. Sieber