P X Airborne

P X Airborne
Posted by Bill Sweetman at 9/28/2007 12:45 PM

The first flight of an all-new military aircraft is an unusual spectacle these days. Japan’s Kawasaki P-X patrol aircraft, the intended replacement for the country’s P-3s, took to the air on Friday.

Video can be found here.

And while you may scoff about Japan’s decision to base a very small fleet of aircraft on a brand-new airframe – and off the top of my head I think the P-X is the first aircraft to be designed from the ground up for maritime patrol since this one…

(and anyone who thinks it’s a P-2 Neptune, put on that pointy hat and sit in the corner, because it isn’t)…

… in any event, the P-X probably makes more sense than the UK’s approach of trying to make a new airplane out of bits of 35-year-old airplanes based on an almost 60-year-old design.

Later edit: Peter Goon emails from Australia to remind me about the Breguet Atlantique. Still, specialized maritime patrol aircraft are pretty rare birds.

Pics: TRDI, US Navy

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