Super progress
Boeing prepares for RAAF Super Hornet deliveries
The RAAF’s Super Hornet project is rapidly taking shape as Boeing works towards a rollout ceremony of the first aircraft next July and the delivery of the first four aircraft to Australia in March 2010.
“The current plans for the Super Hornet program is to deliver the first aircraft in early July 2009,” Boeing’s Australian Super Hornet program manager Carolyn Nichols said from St Louis on August 14. “The goal is to accelerate the test activities that would lead to all of the flight test reports that are required by the RAAF to commence their airworthiness process to receive flight clearances for accepting the aircraft. ” Production of the first of 24 F/A-18F Block 2 Super Hornets for Australia is well underway, with supplier GKN beginning milling of the first titanium bulkhead for the RAAF’s first jet in February, while production by prime subcontractor Northrop Grumman of the first aft-centre fuselage began on July 10. This aft-centre fuselage will in turn be delivered to Boeing in St Louis for final assembly in April next year.
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