Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries have annouced the successfully completion on July 2 of the initial test flight of the second T-50A aircraft in Sacheon, South Korea. The T-50A is the company’s aircraft offering in the US Air Force’s Advanced Pilot Training (APT) competition.
“We now have two aircraft in flight test proving our upgrade, and we’re nearing completion of our assembly and training operations center in Greenville, South Carolina,” said Doug Batista, Lockheed Martin T-50A program manager. “We’re on track to provide the US Air Force with a production line and training capability on day one of contract award.”
The T-50A builds on the proven design of the T-50 of which there are 100 aircraft flying today.
Lockheed Martin teams studied clean-sheet alternatives and determined they pose prohibitive risk to APT cost and schedule requirements.
The T-50A was developed jointly by Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries and the accompanying T-50A Ground-Based Training System features innovative technologies that deliver an immersive, synchronized ground-based training platform.
The first T-50A configured aircraft took its first flight on June 2, 2016.
July 29, 2016
