AAI Services Wins $12.6M Contract From Boeing To Provide Maintenance Training System For U.S. Air Force F-22

Hunt Valley, MD - AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, announced recently that its wholly owned subsidiary, AAI Services, has been awarded a $12.6M contract by The Boeing Company to provide an additional landing gear trainer in support of U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor combat aircraft. Boeing, a primary member of the F-22 manufacturing team, is responsible for training systems for the aircraft program.

The work will be performed at AAI Services' Charleston, South Carolina, facility. The landing gear trainer is scheduled for delivery to Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, in the fourth quarter of 2009.

Including this new award, the company has received orders to build or modify a total of six F-22 Raptor trainers for Sheppard Air Force Base. To date, a modified aft fuselage trainer has been delivered. One modified armament trainer has been delivered as well, and a new build is currently underway. AAI has also delivered one of two new landing gear trainers, and will modify an existing trainer.

AAI's F-22 trainers are high-fidelity maintenance training simulators that will be used by U.S. Air Force technicians to develop apprentice-level certification skills for maintaining critical components and systems. The trainers interface with the same electronic maintenance tools that are used on the aircraft, providing high quality training.

"AAI has a rich history of supporting the U.S. Air Force with leading-edge training and simulation systems and services," said Fred Strader, president of AAI Corporation. "In fact, we have provided C-17 Globemaster III trainers to the Air Force for more than a decade. It is an established area of success for our South Carolina Training and Simulation Center, and we are proud to leverage this depth of knowledge on behalf of the F-22 Raptor program."

SOURCE: AAI Corporation