AT-6 Development Going Well

I wrote about Hawker Beechcraft's (HBC's) AT-6 Light Attack Armed Reconnaissance (LAAR) aircraft just a couple weeks ago. They've already put out a follow-up press release stating that testing of the aircraft is going well.

They've already integrated an EO/IR sensor (really expensive camera suite including day TV and infrared capabilities.) Believe it or not, this is actually a pretty major and important step in the process. It isn't the easiest thing they'll have to do and it does show good progress. They're also working on flight envelope expansions. The AT-6 will have a more powerful model of the P&W PT6 A engine, so it should have some fun capabilities. I imagine the government will allow some other companies to submit proposals for a LAAR aircraft, so we should be hearing about some more entrants soon.

In related news, HBC also just announced that the US Air Force has ordered an additional 6 King Air 350ER aircraft for their Project Liberty program. It seems the USAF has deemed the program such a big success that they can't get enough...at least not with the 23 aircraft already delivered. I'm sure that HBC isn't complaining about the extra $45M they'll make off the 6 aircraft.

I'm very interested to see what the next off-the-shelf aircraft used by the US military is going to be. It's a lot cheaper than designing an aircraft from the ground up and it seems like it yields a better product in many ways. We'll let you know what comes out next.