Boeing [BA] Wednesday said its P-8I team began fabricating the first part for the Indian navy’s first long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti- submarine warfare aircraft this week Wichita, Kan.
“Today marks the P-8I program’s move from the design phase to the build phase,” Leland Wight, Boeing P-8I program manager, said in a statement. “We’re on schedule and the Indian navy is looking forward receiving its first plane.”
The P-8I, based on the Boeing Next-Generation 737 commercial airplane, is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy.
Employees at Spirit AeroSystems, where all Boeing Next-Generation 737 fuselages, nacelles and pylons are designed and built, cut the P-8I’s first part, a bonded aluminum panel that later will be installed on the fuselage’s upper lobe to support an antenna. The panel and other fuselage components will come together on Spirit’s existing Next-Generation 737 production line.
Spirit will ship the P-8I fuselage to a Boeing Commercial Airplanes facility in Renton, Wash., in mid-2011 for final assembly. After that, Boeing Defense, Space & Security employees will install mission systems and complete testing prior to delivery to India.
“P-8I fuselage sections are designed and built using the same processes we use on the commercial 737,” Mike King, Spirit AeroSystems Fuselage Segment senior vice president/general manager, said. “We’ve built seven P-8A fuselages to date and continue to increase efficiency as we move forward.”
Boeing will deliver the first of eight P-8I aircraft to India within 48 months of the original contract signing, which took place in January 2009. India is the first international customer for the P-8.
The P-8I will provide India with speed, reliability, persistence and room for growth to satisfy the country’s maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare requirements now and well into the future. The aircraft features open system architecture, advanced sensor and display technologies, and a worldwide base of suppliers, parts and support equipment.