The Navy has awarded Textron a fixed-price contract of $677 million to develop and build a new fleet of multi-engine training aircraft based on the King Air 300/350. The contract includes development of the T-54A Multi Engine Training System and the eventual delivery of 64 aircraft. The contract includes initial training, spare parts and support equipment.
The new planes will replace decades-old T-44 Pegasus trainers, which are based on the King Air B90. The new trainers will have the latest glass cockpit with some Navy customization including redundant ultra-high frequency and very high frequency radios, an integrated global positioning system/inertial navigation system and a flight data recorder. The Navy uses the platforms for training pilots to fly its various multi-engine platforms.
