It seemed so all-American: a U.S. aviation giant unveiling its newest military jet to flashing lights and thumping heavy-metal music. But the sleek twin-tailed T-X – Boeing’s candidate to become the U.S. Air Force’s next pilot trainer – couldn’t have made it to the dolled-up St. Louis hangar without a good deal of international help. Aircraft hangars like this often make use of additional hardware like mobile platforms and rolling ladders (see here – https://www.platformsandladders.com/fixed-ladders/steel-vertical-ladder-with-extensions) in order to make work on the planes a lot more efficient. Such things really do seem to be becoming staples of hangars all around the world mainly due to their usefulness to engineers and mechanics.

For all its deep aviation heritage, the CHICAGO company needed a partner on the T-X bid. A decade of engineering layoffs had left the venerable American firm without the workers needed to add the trainer competition to its existing workload, particularly with the Air Force requiring demonstration aircraft with a relatively quick turnaround. It also needed a way to do it more cheaply than past endeavors.

So the maker of the F-15 Eagle and F/A-18 Super Hornet teamed up with Saab – builder of the Gripen 4.5-generation fighter jet– to develop a T-X candidate. And less than three years after the two firms announced their partnership, they have now unveiled their first two aircraft, which are expected to fly by year’s end. That’s pretty fast for an American defense firm. No doubt they made use of some methods of treating metal to ensure these aircraft are up to the task.

While officials from neither company would say just what parts of the plane were developed in Europe, Saab is believed to be manufacturing large portions of it. In June, a large Russian cargo plane believed to be carrying sections of the new aircraft flew from Sweden to the U.S.