Flight International online news 010:30GMT: The first UK-modified Sentinel R 1 aircraft for the Ministry of Defence's Airborne Stand Off Radar (ASTOR) programme made its maiden flight from Hawarden airfield at Broughton in North Wales on Monday.

Sentinel - pic4

During the four-hour flight, the aircraft reached an altitude of 17,000ft (5,190m) and a speed of 320kts (592 km/h).

The Sentinel R 1 is a heavily modified Bombardier Global Express business jet. Most of the major modification and integration work is being undertaken by Raytheon Systems Limited (RSL).

After landing back at Hawarden, Peter Collins, head of flying at Raytheon said: "The test flight went extremely well given such an extensive rebuild and complex mission system integration into what is an already highly advanced aircraft in its standard form. 

“We checked all of systems that we planned to on this first functional check flight and the test points showed the aircraft handled little differently from a standard Global Express." 

The aircraft, is the second Sentinel R1 to fly.  The first, modified and flown at Greenville in Texas, is currently undergoing final integration work before being delivered to the UK

 

Source: Flight International