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http://www.flickr.com/photos/us_embassy ... 111562936/
Quite a surprise!On January 24, 2014 at New Zealand Defence House in Wellington, New Zealand, Helene Quilter, Secretary of Defence and Russ Bartlett, President of Beechcraft Inc., of Wichita, Kansas signed a contract to replace the existing Beech King Air aircraft with the T-6 trainer aircraft.
The first two new T-6 trainer aircraft are due to arrive in New Zealand later this year.
Beechcraft’s contract will support approximately 550 U.S. jobs including Beechcraft’s production and engineering positions in Wichita.
http://rnzaf.proboards.com/thread/20601 ... ing?page=2
I'd heard a rumour of this order a couple of weeks ago. Interested to hear what advice and information the RNZAF has sought from the RAAF, because I'm aware the Aussies weren't enamoured by the variant after reviewing it.
The second part was that 14 Sqn is to be reformed to fly them. If true, I don't think that flying a small number of turbo prop pilot trainers is suitable for the reformation of one of the premier RNZAF fighter squadrons.
Note the colour scheme (14 Sqn markings apparently!) and I'm told there will be 11 aircraft, all flying.