JULY/AUGUST AIRFORCEMAG.COM advancements,” said Boeing spokesman Walt Rice. “I don’t
think we’re ready to share that level of detail.”
So much of the software was validated prior to the contract
award that updates have become less frequent while the
company waits for the Air Force to decide what additional
features and revisions it wants.
PARTNERS COUNT
Partnering with Saab made sense because both have a
“similar mindset” about innovation, Niewald said.
e T-X bene ts from “a little bit of Swedish design philos-
ophy,” said Parker. e aircraft draws some inspiration from
Saab’s fourth-generation ghter, the Gripen, such as built-in
stand-on doors, access panels that can be reached without
a ladder, and maintenance that doesn’t require specialized
tools.
e design went from drawing board to rst ight in three
years, skipping the prototype stage and going directly to
“production representative jets.” e second T-X to be built
ew within 24 hours of the rst, he added, and they are “the
most identical jets we’ve ever built.”
Now the same processes used to build them will be used
to build the rest of the eet.
ese rst two aircraft racked up 71 ights during the
evaluation period, at one point ying four times in one day.
at’s comparable to what the Air Force expects to do with
operational aircraft, and “unheard of ” on brand-new aircraft,
Niewald said. e rst two aircraft expanded the ight enve-
lope and demonstrated high angle-of-attack performance,
as required.
“Probably the most signi cant stats that we had, we went
through the rst 14 ights without a pilot squawk,” Niewald
said. at is a testament to how we went through this journey,
[we] had a robust design.”
e Boeing T-X was built to the Air Force’s stated require-
ments: the only extra features were those that could be in-
cluded without a cost, weight, or space penalty.
“I had a lot of guys on the program that wanted to design
a ghter,” Niewald allowed, but that wasn’t the aim. Instead,
design focused on meeting requirements, safety, maintain-
ability, and building in “smart growth” capacity.
“We have volume, and we have power and cooling that
can support new systems,” he asserted. e aircraft was
“provisioned” for air refueling, and the fuel tanks are all in the
fuselage; the wings are dry. Despite large fairings for actuators
under the wings, he insisted there’s room for hardpoints that
could carry ordnance.
Parker said the Air Force acquisition leadership is commit-
ted to getting equipment to the user faster than ever, and the
T-X will be a way to “challenge the bureaucracy... [on] howPhoto: Eric Shindelbower/BoeingT-X training jets built
at Boeing’s St. Louis
manufacturing facility used
labor-saving processes
and precision design to
reduce touch labor by 80
percent over conventional
manufacturing.