The team responsible for bringing the P-8A Poseidon into Royal Air Force service have visited a factory in Sheffield manufacturing parts for the new maritime patrol aircraft.
The manufacturing facility, Boeing’s first in Europe, builds 137 separate components for the actuator systems which move the flaps on the wings, for each Boeing 737 aircraft.
P-8 Programme Director Group Captain Shaun Gee, who joined the RAF from his home town of Sheffield, said: “It’s been a privilege to visit the Boeing facility, housed on the site of the former Sheffield airport, near the home of Sheffield steel.
“Many of the parts fabricated in the facility are made by a workforce including over 25 apprentices, from steel manufactured within 10 miles of the site. Parts from the Boeing Sheffield plant will be used on the RAF’s P-8A Poseidon MRA Mk1 and the E-7 Wedgetail in future.”
P-8 Programme Director
Group Captain Shaun Gee
Air Commodore Richard Barrow presented RAF P-8A Poseidon coins to high performing members of the Sheffield team. The apprentices on the 3-5 year programme work in association with the University of Sheffield’s Advanced Material Research Centre.
The first Poseidon MRA Mk1 aircraft is in production in Seattle and is due to make its first flight in July before it moves to another Boeing facility to be fitted out with the Poseidon-specific military systems. The aircraft is scheduled to be delivered to the Royal Air Force, initially at Naval Air Station Jacksonville, in October 2019 and is due to arrive in the UK in early-Spring 2020.