Lockheed Martin's second T-50A aircraft for T-X competition takes flight

Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries successfully completed the initial test flight of its second T-50A configured aircraft in Sacheon, South Korea. The T-50A is the company's aircraft offering in the U.S. Air Force's Advanced Pilot Training (APT) competition.

"We now have two aircraft in flight test proving our upgrade, and we're nearing completion of our assembly and training operations center in Greenville, South Carolina," said Doug Batista, Lockheed Martin T-50A program manager. "We're on track to provide the U.S. Air Force with a production line and training capability on day one of contract award."

The T-50A is low risk and ready now. It builds on the proven heritage of the T-50 with more than 100 T-50s flying today - 100,000 flight hours and counting - and more than 1,000 pilots trained.

The T-50A is the only offering that meets all APT requirements and can deliver those capabilities on schedule at the lowest risk to the customer. Lockheed Martin teams studied clean-sheet alternatives and determined they pose prohibitive risk to APT cost and schedule requirements. The T-50A delivers the performance and capabilities needed to prepare pilots to fly, fight and win with 5th Generation fighter aircraft.

The T-50A was developed jointly by Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries. The accompanying T-50A Ground-Based Training System features innovative technologies that deliver an immersive, synchronized ground-based training platform.

Lockheed Martin completed the initial flight test of its first T-50A configured aircraft on June 2, 2016.