Hawker Beechcraft has not delivered any T-6A Texan II turboprop primary trainers to the US Air Force and Navy since July because of a wing spar issue, and does not know when the services will allow deliveries to resume.
Deliveries were halted after the discovery that a supplier had used an unapproved process in production of the spars. The company says its testing of the affected spar showed no safety of flight issue or impact on fatigue life, but the US Air Force and Navy elected to perform their own testing, the results of which are expected shortly.
Hawker Beechcraft has continued to produce T-6s, storing them in anticipation of being allowed to resume deliveries. The US services have continued flying their existing T-6s, but have restricted aircraft with affected spars to manoeuvres below 5.5g, versus their maximum 7g. The USAF has so far received 318 T-6s from a planned total of 452, and the USN 47 from an eventual fleet of 315.
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T-6s are still being produced by Hawker Beechcraft and placed in storage |
Source: Flight International
