Boeing Begins Building Indian Navy's P-8I Aircraft

The Boeing team began fabricating the first part for the Indian navy's first long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft on Dec. 6 in Wichita, U.S. Delivery is scheduled for January 2013. Employees at Spirit AeroSystems , where all Boeing Next-Generation 737 fuselages, nacelles and pylons are designed and built cut the P-8I's first part, a bonded aluminum panel that later will be installed on the fuselage's upper lobe to support an antenna. The panel and other fuselage components will come together on Spirit's existing Next-Generation 737 production line. Spirit will ship the P-8I fuselage to a Boeing Commercial Airplanes facility in Renton, Wash., in mid-2011 for final assembly. After that, Boeing Defense, Space & Security employees will install mission systems and complete testing prior to delivery to India. Boeing will deliver the first of eight P-8I aircraft to India within 48 months of the original contract signing, which took place in January 2009. India is the first international customer for the P-8.