regard it as a very capable aircraft— and the Navy still flies it. But what sets the P-8A apart, in addition to the increased situational awareness that its automation allows, is the aircraft’s range and speed—and expandability, the Navy said. “No other plane has the ability to go out so far, search large areas and come back,” said Klosterman about the P-8A. “We can go out there and do that, and execute four, five, six different types of missions,” he said. The P-8A has a range of 1,200 nautical miles (1,380 miles, or 2,200 kilometers) with four hours “on station”—when the aircraft is where it needs to be to perform the mission. This capability made the P-8A especially effective in the long-range search effort over the vast Indian Ocean for Malaysia Airlines flight MH 370, which went missing in late 2014; the Navy deployed two P-8As for the mission. Exum, the instructor pilot from the Operational Flight Trainer, considers the P-8A “a technical masterpiece.” He flew the P-3 for two and a half years and has flown the P-8A for two, having piloted missions in Africa, Italy and Japan. The first thing he noticed about the P-8A was the thrust—its two CFM56-7BE engines provide more than 27,000 pounds (121,500 newtons) of it. “It’s a lot faster,” he said. “And the ability for it to climb—it’s exponential compared with the P-3.” Then there’s the expandability. Whereas the P-8A’s open-architecture mission system allows for growth and greater adaptability, the P-3 is (Continued on Page 24) Photos: (From left) U.S. Navy pilots arrive on the flight line at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., early in the morning to prepare for the day’s mission; ground crew prepare a P-8A for a dawn launch; U.S. Navy airman Ashlee Skelly supports P-8A Poseidon aircraft as they return to and launch from the flight line. 22 | BOEING FRONTIERS
Frontiers April 2016 Issue
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