JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM B
oeing bet big on the T-X Advanced Trainer
competition: e company put a lot of its
own money on the line and counted on
new design and manufacturing technol-
ogies to win the contract with an all-new
aircraft, even as the Air Force pressed for a low-risk,
o -the-shelf approach. e company also viewed T-X
as a proving ground for a design and development
approach it could apply to future programs. “ e risk
was super high,” said Boeing Vice President and T-X
Program Manager Steve Parker.
“If we hadn’t met our own schedule, if we hadn’t
met our own design reviews and quality, if the soft-
ware wasn’t mature, and we couldn’t y those test
points,” Parker said, there would have been “no point
submitting a proposal.”
He added, “You can’t game the system. It’s got to
be mature.”
Just how much Boeing invested in the T-X isn’t
clear. Company sources suggest the amount exceed-
ed $100 million. e payo could be huge, though.
Last fall the Air Force signed Boeing, and its partner
Saab, to a contract potentially worth $9.2 billion, not
counting variants the service could order for other
Aggressive technology, schedule, and pricing made the difference.
How Boeing
Won the T-X
By John A. Tirpak roles, such as companion trainer, aggressor, or
light ghter. Boeing sees a market for 2,000 of the
aircraft, including those for the Air Force.
Paul Niewald, Boeing’s T-X chief engineer, said
the company was preparing for the T-X long before
the competition even got underway. Company
leaders believed modern, computer-driven design
and manufacturing could dramatically shorten
the development cycle, saving time and money
with 3-D modeling and precision manufacturing
that would reduce labor and accelerate software
development.
Initially, the Air Force pushed competitors
to o er a variant of an in-production airplane,
the better to reduce risk. “We were competing
against proven, in-production aircraft, so we had
to do things di erently,” Niewald said. Although
there were lessons learned from Boeing’s other
programs, the T-X was a “petri dish” for “a lot of
di erent innovations,” he noted.
New 3-D modeling software meant the company
could create a digital twin, test performance in vir-
tual wind tunnels, and make adjustments rapidly,
without having to bend metal. is permitted the
company to “rapidly get out there with a con gu-
ration,” he said.Boeing, with partner Saab, made a calculated investment and landed the Air Force’s T-X Trainer contract worth upward of $9.2 billion.Photo: Eric Shindelbower/Boeing“If we hadn’t
met our own
schedule,
if we hadn’t
met our
own design
reviews
and quality,
if the soft-
ware wasn’t
mature, and
we couldn’t
fly those
test points
.... no point
submitting a
proposal.”—
Boeing T-X Vice
President Steve
Parker