Farnborough 2024: Boeing preparing for increased T-7A production

Two Boeing T-7A Red Hawk prototypes. Boeing intends to ramp up production to five per month. (Boeing)

Boeing is preparing to ramp up production of the T-7A Red Hawk training aircraft in anticipation of production for the US Air Force (USAF), company officials said in advance of the Farnborough International Airshow 2024, which runs from 22 to 26 July outside London in the United Kingdom. Although low-rate initial production (LRIP) is planned to begin at a rate of one per month, Boeing intends to ramp up production to up to five per month at full scale.

“This production system…starting at LRIP and continuing on to full-rate production, is fully designed to satisfy the full maximum demand of our air force contract, as well as delivering capacity for the future,” said Nathan Russell, the company's T-7A LRIP programme manager, on 25 June.

The first LRIP aircraft is moving through production and will take approximately one year to build, though production versions are expected to spend roughly four months in the facility.

The T-7A is built under the full-size determinant assembly (FSDA) method, whereby parts arrive from subcontractors with screw holes and other attachment mechanisms already in place. The primary benefit of FSDA is the ability to manufacture both major parts and subassemblies simultaneously and cutting out the need to drill holes through them, resulting in shortened construction time. Although car and truck manufacturers have constructed their productions using FSDA for decades, only in recent years have aerospace companies – which build to tighter tolerances – adapted the method.