Textron AirLand has completed the Scorpion’s 266th flight test hour, one year after its first flight on December 12, 2013. “Today’s anniversary flight was a fitting tribute to our teams who have worked tirelessly to meet a very demanding flight test schedule,” said Textron AirLand president Bill Anderson .

“In the past year, Scorpion has flown to many US states and across the Atlantic—demonstrating that a highly affordable, relevant, multi-mission tactical aircraft can also be highly reliable,” he added.

Scorpion’s first-year availability rating was greater than 95 per cent, an extremely high mission capability score for a prototype tactical jet aircraft. It has demonstrated below $3,000 per flight hour. Scorpion crossed the Atlantic for its international debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Airshow. The trip was completed one day ahead of schedule, covering over 9,200 nautical miles in a total of 38 hours flight time.