Textron AirLand Marks One-Year Anniversary of Scorpion ISR-Strike-Trainer Jet's 1st Flight

Textron AirLand, LLC, a Textron company, today completed its 266th flight test hour, one year after its first flight on December 12, 2013. “Today’s anniversary flight was a fitting tribute to our teams who have worked tirelessly to meet a very demanding flight test schedule,” said Textron AirLand president Bill Anderson. “In the past year, Scorpion has flown to many US states and across the Atlantic—demonstrating that a highly affordable, relevant, multi-mission tactical aircraft can also be highly reliable,” he added.

First-year flight testing highlights:

• Total flight hours: 266 from December 12, 2013 to December 12, 2014
• Availability: Scorpion’s first-year availability rating was greater than 95 percent, an extremely high mission capability score for a prototype tactical jet aircraft
• Confirmed efficiency: Demonstrated below $3,000 per flight hour
• First trans-Atlantic roundtrip flight: Scorpion crossed the Atlantic for its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Air Show. The trip was completed one day ahead of schedule, covering over 9,200 nautical miles in a total of 38 hours flight time.

• International demo: Flew the first international pilot at the British Empire Test Pilots’ School
• First military exercise: Participated in Vigilant Guard 2014, a large-scale, multi-state disaster response exercise sponsored by U.S. Northern Command and the National Guard Bureau. Scorpion provided aerial reconnaissance, transmission of full motion video and communications regarding mock threat scenarios, in tight coordination with other aircraft and ground stations
• Longest flight: 4.2 hours during Vigilant Guard 2014
• Top speed achieved: 455 Knots True Air Speed (KTAS); 0.78 Mach
• Low speed achieved: Demonstrated an intercept of a low, slow flying threat aircraft below 100 KTAS
• Top altitude achieved: 45,000 feet

Source : Textron