Textron announces Scorpion's maiden flight

Textron AirLand on Thursday announced that the first "production-conforming" Scorpion jet completed a successful maiden flight.

"This program milestone closely follows the recent successful weapons capability exercise on the prototype Scorpion completed in early October," the company said.

Textron said in October it was accelerating the program, following the signing earlier this year of a cooperative research and development agreement with the Air Force and what the company described as growing customer interest.

"The latest version of the Scorpion incorporates a number of improvements based on target customer feedback as well as results from the extensive flight test program," Textron said this week. "The program has accumulated more than 800 flight hours in both test and real-world operational settings."

The company said the first production-conforming Scorpion "will start a robust flight test program."