Textron AirLand, LLC, a joint venture between Textron Inc. and AirLand Enterprises, LLC, recently announced that the Scorpion has completed 50 hours of flight time since the start of flight testing in December 2013.

The objective of recent flights has been to gather data about the aircraft‘s performance at various speeds, altitudes and climb rates, as well as to assess the responsiveness of Scorpion‘s avionics, flight controls and landing system.

“The aircraft systems have performed well within the expected parameters, with very few issues,” said Scorpion‘s Chief Engineer, Dale Tutt. “This is a significant benefit of using mature, non-developmental systems: in addition to reducing the overall development time of the prototype aircraft, the systems have proven to be very reliable.”

Test pilot Dan Hinson added, “The flight control systems are powered by dual hydraulic systems based on the Citation X business jet, and have performed flawlessly. In the event of a loss of both hydraulic systems, the airplane can be flown in manual reversion.”

The Scorpion testing programme remains on pace to complete 300-400 test hours this year, which will require about 150 flights. This is expected to include a number of international flights, pending the standard approvals.