Turkey’s delayed “Peace Eagle” airborne early warning and control aircraft project has received a welcome boost, with the nation’s first of four modified 737 airliners having performed its flight debut earlier this month.
Conducted from Boeing’s Seattle Field site in Washington, the 2.5h debut included “a series of functional tests that verified the airworthiness of the aircraft’s systems and structures,” the company says. Key modifications to the 737-700 airframe include the addition of a Northrop Grumman Mesa active electronically scanned array radar in a radome mounted above the fuselage.
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Mission system flight tests will begin “in the fall”, says Boeing, which during May confirmed that the type's entry into Turkish service had slipped from this year until 2010. Ankara’s three other AEW&C aircraft are now being modified by Turkish Aerospace Industries, with the first of these to fly in 2008.
Boeing has also received orders to produce 737-based AEW&C systems for Australia (six) and South Korea (four).
Source: FlightGlobal.com
