According to the Swedish Saab company on Friday, Saab manufactured the completion of the third set of T-7A Red Hawk trainer fuselage rear fuselage shipment to the United States for the U.S. Air Force flight test program of the aircraft.
On September 10, 2021, the fuselage parts were shipped from Saab's Linköping plant in Sweden to Boeing in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. The production and shipment of these rear fuselage parts is the latest milestone in Saab's contribution to the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the U.S. Air Force's new T-7A Red Hawk trainer aircraft.
Upon completion of the EMD phase, Saab will be tasked with producing rear-body components for the T-7A project at saab's new facility in West Lafayette, Indiana, USA.
Boeing will finalize the work of stitching together the rear parts and the front parts produced by Saab. It then assembles the wings, tails, and other components to become a complete test aircraft for the EMD flight test program. The subsystems – hydraulic, fuel and auxiliary power systems – extend from the back of the cockpit to the end of the aircraft.
In April 2021, Saab delivered the first set of T-7A Red Hawk rear fuselage parts, followed by a second set in July 2021. Upon arrival at Boeing in St. Louis, Saab's rear fuselage fit perfectly into the front fuselage in less than 30 minutes. This achievement is a testament to the use of digital design and engineering, which delivers accuracy, efficiency and higher quality throughout the design and delivery process of the T-7A Red Hawk.
The T-7A Red Hawk is the U.S. Air Force's new, state-of-the-art pilot trainer aircraft designed and built specifically for the U.S. Air Force to train the next generation of combat pilots for decades to come. The development of the aircraft benefited from Saab and Boeing's "out-of-the-box" approach to military aircraft design, engineering and production, which allowed the previous T-X aircraft to go from concept to first flight in just 36 months.