Boeing P-8A Poseidon T2 successfully completes 1st flight

Boeing [NYSE: BA] P-8A Poseidon test aircraft T2 takes off from Renton Field today to begin its successful first flight. T2 took off at 10:32 a.m. Pacific time and landed two hours and 56 minutes later at Boeing Field in Seattle at 1:28 p.m.

The flight plan for T2, painted in its new U.S. Navy livery, included a flyby of Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., to give Navy personnel a close-up look at the Poseidon. The Navy is purchasing 117 P-8As to replace its fleet of P-3Cs.

The anti-submarine warfare aircraft reached a maximum altitude of 25,000 feet as pilots performed airborne systems checks such as engine accelerations and decelerations, autopilot flight modes and auxiliary power unit shutdowns and starts.

T2 is the third of five test aircraft being assembled and tested as part of the System Development and Demonstration contract that Boeing received in 2004. T1, the program's first test aircraft, completed its first flight on April 25.