US aerospace and defence giant Boeing has announced the successful joining of the front and aft sections of the first engineering and manufacturing development test example of the T-7A Red Hawk advanced trainer for the US Air Force (USAF). The T-7A is a joint programme between Boeing and Swedish aerospace and defence group Saab. 

The joining of the fuselage sections took place at Boeing’s plant in St Louis, in the US state of Missouri, where the front section is made. The aft section was designed by Saab and is manufactured in that company’s facility in Linköping, Sweden, some 7 200 km from St Louis.

“This moment marks a key stage in the evolution of the T-7A Red Hawk,” affirmed Boeing T-7 programme VP and programme manager Chuck Dabundo. “Employing digitally advanced manufacturing and build techniques developed by Boeing over the past two decades, we are bringing this trainer to future pilots sooner than ever before possible and with greater quality.”

The two fuselage sections were joined in less than 30 minutes, which was 95% less time than a traditional fuselage section joining would have taken. This demonstrated the benefits of using digital technologies such as three-dimensional design and model-based engineering. The use of digital technologies also provided greatly increased production quality.

“What we’re seeing in this new evolution of digitally designed, engineered and manufactured aircraft is a 50% improvement in overall production quality and as much as a 98% reduction in drilling defects,” reported Boeing T-7A Red Hawk production director Andrew Stark. “It’s a new way of producing airplanes with improved quality throughout the whole journey.”

While this first aircraft will be used for static tests, it will be followed by a further five flying engineering and manufacturing development test T-7A aircraft. They will form part of the USAF order for 351 T-7As.