Eight Air Forces to Fly T-6B

Raytheon Aircraft Company's upgraded primary training aircraft, the T-6B, left Beech Field earlier this week on the first leg of its world tour. The tour will include flight demonstrations in the United Kingdom, Spain, Greece, Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates. In addition, the T-6B will be on display at the Air Show Down Under in Avalon, Australia, the Paris Air Show in France and the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in the UK.

"We welcome the opportunity to take the T-6B directly to the customer to enable them to view and fly the aircraft in their own environment, affording them the ability to experience the handling capabilities of the aircraft firsthand." said Sherry Grady, vice president of Government Business, at Raytheon Aircraft Company. "This demo tour is about helping us to understand the customer and their requirements; learning what they like and don't like about the aircraft, discussing how we can meet their needs, and become their training partner. The T-6B's new avionics suite allows us to tailor to each individual customer's training program, and we are looking forward to hearing what they have to say."

With 95 percent commonality with the highly successful T-6 flown by the US Air Force, US Navy, Hellenic Air Force of Greece and the NATO Flying Training in Canada Program, the upgraded T-6B is the next-generation trainer and light attack aircraft. The aircraft features an avionic suite intended for customers interested in fully utilizing the aircraft's training footprint. Each suite will consist of a Flight Visions, Inc., FV-4000 Modular Mission Display Processor (MMDP), a SparrowHawk Head Up Display (HUD), Stores Management, and multifunction displays (MFD).

The Flight Visions avionic suite will provide the upgraded T-6B with advanced cockpit management functions employed in the latest front line aircraft and include an open architecture mission computer giving the aircraft a multi-role capability as both a trainer and a light attack aircraft. The open architecture also allows for configuration flexibility that provides the student with an opportunity to fly a next generation aircraft at lower cost.

The missionized T-6B, using the Flight Visions FV-4000 Mission Computer and proven Operational Flight Program, can be outfitted with guns, rockets and bombs, fulfilling a secondary role as a light attack aircraft.
Raytheon Aircraft designs, manufactures, markets and supports Beechcraft and Hawker aircraft for the world's commercial, military and regional airline markets.

FMI: www.raytheonaircraft.com