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Boeing has released two photos of the first Royal Australian Air Force P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance aircraft undergoing final assembly at the manufacturer’s Renton facility just outside Seattle.
The first photograph, taken on March 11, shows the wings being joined on the aircraft, while the second photograph shows the tail being added.
Acquisition of eight P-8As for the RAAF was approved in 2014, while the recently released Defence White Paper’s accompanying Integrated Investment Program (IIP) revealed that, “Eight Poseidon aircraft will be introduced in the early 2020s, with seven additional aircraft to be acquired in two tranches to bring the total to 15 aircraft by the late 2020s.”
Approval of the first of those additional tranches of P-8s was subsequently announced by Defence Minister Senator Marise Payne at the RAAF’s Air Power Conference in Canberra in March.
“The first of the Poseidons is expected to be delivered late this year and 12 aircraft will be in service by 2022,” Senator Payne told the Air Power Conference.
The P-8A is based on the Boeing 737-800 commercial aircraft. The fuselage is built at Sprit AeroSystems as a dedicated P-8A alongside the commercial 737 fuselages in Wichita, Kansas while final assembly is on a specific P-8A line at Boeing’s 737 factory in Renton, Washington State. Mission and sensor systems are then installed at Boeing Field, Seattle
Harry
says:Sexy
Sean
says:Will it stay in the states ?
Alan
says:I like the way they put a big picture on the fuselage …. guys this is what its meant to look like …
except the plane is arse about ! …. 🙂
Nice.
Dave Thomas
says:A great aircraft for our off shore defence, and search and rescue opp’s. Teamed with say the Triton MQ-4C we will have a product unequalled in our Asia/Pacific area.
aviatorman
says:Its amazing to see that Boeing’s work is never done…. they just keep on producing aircraft. The photo’s remind me of the factory at Renton way back in 1961 when 707’s were the line. Back then Seattle was in full swing and its ‘ Space Needle’ had just begun along with Monorail…. then along came Bill Gates and the rest is history.