P-8I Program (Video)

P-8I program put to the test (Video)

A military derivative of the Next-Generation 737-800, the P-8I is a sister ship to the P-8A, the United States Navy’s maritime surveillance and submarine hunter that is the replacement for the P-3 Orion. The P-8 is designed to carry weapons both under the wing and in a weapons bay; both are firsts for a Boeing commercial derivative airplane.

The additional flight testing demanded installation of test specific instrumentation during production, which meant additional work for an already busy factory team.

Jeanette Croppi is a Boeing Test & Evaluation test program manager, tasked with getting an aircraft prepared for and through testing on time and on budget.

“For P-8I we had to do something we’ve never done before, -- drop simulated weapons from the wing of a commercial airplane and nobody’s ever done that before in The Boeing Company,” said Croppi. “We only have a few people left who have done store drops from an aircraft and they were fighters.”

Check the video above

 Boeing