Lockheed P-7

The Lockheed P-7 was a four turboprop-engined patrol aircraft ordered by the United States Navy as a replacement for the P-3 Orion, and it was to look very much like the P-3 externally. In the mid-1980s the Navy planned to replace the large number of P-3 aircraft reaching the end of their service lives in the 1990s, first by a modified P-3 called the P-3G, but it was unwilling to choose Lockheed's P-3G without competition and issued a request for proposals in January 1987 for the P-7A LRAACA. The wing centre section was lengthened to move the engines farther from the fuselage and cut cabin noise, and the aircraft was to use four General Electric T407 turboprops with five-blade propellers. In November 1989 Lockheed announced a cost overrun of 300 million dollars from the tight schedule and design problems, and the program was cancelled in July 1990 before development had gone far.