Should Take To The Air This Fall

On Sunday, Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team completed assembly of the first F-35 aircraft, and moved it out of the factory in preparation for an intensive period of ground testing. First flight of the F-35 remains on schedule for this fall.

The move into daylight February 19 capped a thorough design update from the Concept Development Phase of the program, and an innovative production process that yielded unprecedented levels of assembly accuracy, fit and finish.

"Our team's engineers, mechanics and assemblers deserve high praise for the precise way in which this airplane came together with very few issues," said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and JSF program general manager. "The fact that this level of quality was achieved on our first aircraft, at the beginning of our learning curve, signals good things for the reliability and affordability of the thousands of F-35s that will follow."

Mechanics transferred the airplane to a nearby fueling facility where it will initially undergo a thorough fuel-system check-out. Structural coupling and ground-vibration testing will follow. Engine runs will begin in late spring and will lead into taxi tests in advance of first flight.

"I look at what this airplane is going to do, how it is going to change the nature of tactical warfare, and I am amazed," said Air Force Brig. Gen. C.R. Davis, deputy executive officer of the Joint Strike Fighter program. "This program is young, and plenty of hard work remains ahead, but the F-35's move to the flightline is a major milestone. It's a great day."

The stealthy F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, fifth-generation fighter designed to replace aging AV-8B Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and United Kingdom Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers.

Lockheed representatives told Aero-News the F-35 that will fly this fall will be a conventional takeoff-and-landing variant (CTOL), as opposed to the ducted-fan-equipped vertical takeoff-and-landing model (VTOL).

Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

FMI: www.lockheedmartin.com