BOEING'S T-7 FLIES FOR ITS FIRST OFFICIAL USAF FLIGHT

A US Air Force pilot departed Boeing’s St. Louis, Missouri facilities at the controls of a T-7A Red Hawk, thereby occasioning the commencement of USAF flight-testing of the service’s new, supersonic, advanced jet trainer.

Announced by Boeing, the event marks the onset of the T-7's engineering and manufacturing development phase. The tandem-seat jet was taken aloft for 63-minutes by Major Bryce Turner of the USAF's 416th Test Squadron and Boeing T-7 chief test pilot Steve Schmidt. The pair verified the aircraft's rudimentary flight characteristics, which Major Turner characterised favourably, saying in a post-flight statement the T-7 'performs like a fighter.'

The milestone flight was undertaken in aircraft 21-7005, the first of five aircraft provided by Boeing to support the Air Force's T-7A test programme. Boeing's partner in the T-7 project, Saab of Sweden, builds much of the aircraft's mid-fuselage and empennage sections. By virtue of two pre-production prototypes dubbed T-1 and T-2 Boeing won 2019's T-X competition, eking out Leonardo's T-100 and Lockheed-Martin/ KAI's T-50A submissions. The ensuing years have seen Boeing test pilots put the two prototype airframes through hundreds of hours of evaluation and proving flights.

Notwithstanding USAF General Mike Holmes, then head of Air Combat Command having made a brief flight in one of the prototypes, the 28 June sortie stands as the first official Air Force flight of the T-7 insomuch as the aircraft flown by Major Turner was the first of the jet's production configuration, which differs considerably from the T-1 and T-2 prototypes. Boeing vice-president and T-7 programme manager Evelyn Moore declared the first USAF-piloted T-7 flight speaks to Boeing's 'commitment to delivering a new level of safety and training for fighter and bomber pilots.'Moore continued: "We remain focused on engineering ways to better prepare war fighters for changing mission demands and emerging threats." The official start of the T-7's engineering and manufacturing development phase was delayed several months by complications with the aircraft's ejection seat system.