Will Be Shipped From The UK To Texas For Final Assembly

The manufacture of the 150th F-35 rear fuselage and tail set has been completed at BAE System's military aircraft factory in Samlesbury, Lancashire, the company said in a news release. The 150th aircraft set, known as AF070, is a CTOL variant destined for the US Air Force. AF070 will be married up with the rest of the aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s assembly facility in Fort Worth, Texas.

"AF070 is the 150th aircraft set to leave our production facility," said Jon Evans, Head of Production Delivery, F-35 at Samlesbury. "The first 20 sets were development phase, the rest production aircraft.  We are now producing aircraft sets at a rate of one every five days thanks to the multi-million pound investment we made in the Samlesbury site, so we’re well on the way to producing one set a day by 2018.

“If we continue as we have done over the past 10 years, not only do we sustain jobs in the long term for our 1000+ workforce, but we help make a significant contribution to the UK economy through the work created in the 500 British-based companies involved in the program," Evans said. "With a potential requirement of 3000+ aircraft, the scale of this program is huge.”

Collectively some 500+ UK companies are involved in the F-35 Lightning II program, building 15 per cent of each F-35 produced. BAE says over the next 40 years UK industry will continue to play a vital role in the F-35’s global production, follow-on development and sustainment, bringing strong economic benefits to the country and generating tens of thousands of jobs.

(Image provided by BAE Systems)

FMI: www.baesystems.com