Production of the T-7A Red Hawk training aircraft was delayed for at least a year due to technical problems during testing. According to Airforce Magazine, the aircraft was found to be unstable during roll when flying at high angles of attack.
Red Hawk is developed by Boeing together with the Swedish Saab. They are to supply the USAF with 351 training aircraft to replace the obsolete T-38s that are used to train pilots today. The first flight of the T-7A took place in 2016, and last year the plane was tested by an inverted flight. This allowed us to check the stability of the flight under negative loads.
Boeing began mass production of the Red Hawk in February. The rollout of the first production aircraft was planned for the end of 2021 or the beginning of 2022, and adoption into service - for 2024. Boeing was going to produce one aircraft per month at the first stage, and then accelerate production to four or five units per month.
But due to technical problems during testing, production of the T-7A was postponed for at least a year — until 2023. When flying at high angles of attack, the aircraft may be unstable during roll, so its testing needs to be extended. In addition, there were other problems: a shortage of spare parts from suppliers and delays in the initial stages of development.
New training aircraft are waiting not only in the United States, but also in Denmark. Earlier we wrote about the light electric aircraft Velis Electro, which the Danish military is going to adopt.
Vasilisa Chernyavtseva
