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Raytheon Plans T-6B Customer Feedback Tour
The T-6B light-attack aircraft Raytheon Aircraft Co. is showing here with its new CMC cockpit and head-up display will embark on a tour of Europe, Asia, the Middle East and the Americas for potential customers to say what they like and don't on the trainer derivative.
Raytheon expects to tweak the configurable avionics after receiving customer input, and after will seek certification of the system, notes Sherry Grady, Raytheon Aircraft vp for government business. The aircraft will be on tour through the middle of 2005.
The light-attack version can carry 500-pound bombs, one under each wing, and up to 1,500 pounds under each wing. There are six hard points in total. Raytheon, and its partner FlightSafety International, still need to upgrade the ground training element of the system for the T-6B configuration.
The cost of the T-6B is estimated at $6.2 million a copy, not quite $2 million more than the baseline T-6A.
After Farnborough, the T-6B prototype will return to the U.S., where Raytheon wants to show it to government officials. It will set out on the world tour in September. Grady says target countries include the U.K., Spain, Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Australia and several South American states. Turkey may be on the list, too, but Ankara is about to release a request for proposal, which could mean the country will not allow one of the potential competitors to visit, to avoid giving one an unfair advantage.
Raytheon officials are making the case in the U.S. and other countries that the T-6B would allow an expansion of training with the basic trainer, shifting workload from more expensive to own and operate advanced trainers. For instance, U.S. military pilots could train on a T-6B for 180 hours, not just the 90-hour level now used, says Pat Farley, manager of business development for Raytheon's government business division.
Greece, which operates the trainer, some of which with hardpoints—although not the upgraded avionics—plans to use the aircraft as part of security enforcement at the upcoming Olympic games in Athens. Raytheon also is targeting the U.S. homeland security market.
—Robert Wall
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