Beechcraft Defense Company LLC, a Textron Inc. company, announced at the Paris Air Show that it recently delivered four Beechcraft T-6D military aircraft to the United States Army.

These aircraft, which are part of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems (JPATS) program, will be stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, and will replace the Beechcraft T-34 aircraft currently in use at the facility.

“We are pleased that the U.S. Army is joining the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and countries around the world in trusting the T-6 to prepare and support their combat flying forces. This versatile platform comprised of four aircraft will be used in a variety of training and mission support applications,” said Russ Bartlett, president, Beechcraft Defense Company.

Upon arrival in Huntsville, the four T-6D aircraft will perform such missions as: Operational Support Airlift, utility, training, chase, airspeed calibration support, cloud physics research, and stores component research and qualification.

The Beechcraft T-6D is a hybrid of the T-6B and T-6C trainers. It features new standard avionics, featuring integrated mission computers, up-front control panels, multi-function displays and a Heads-Up Display. The Army T-6D aircraft have a hard point wing to allow carriage of up to six wing-mounted pylons and two external fuel tanks.

The Beechcraft T-6 delivers world-class training capability and is ideally suited for teaching the most basic introductory flight training tasks through the more challenging and complex advanced training missions that could previously only be accomplished in far more expensive jet aircraft. The T-6 is being used in more than 20 countries around the world to train pilots, navigators, and weapons systems operators. To date, Beechcraft has delivered more than 850 T-6 trainers, which have amassed more than 2.5 million flight hours.

 

Photo: Pictured left to right: COL Steve Clark, U.S. Army Fixed Wing Project Manager, Dan Grace, Vice President, Business Development, Defense Company and COL Patrick Mason, Commander, RTC