Mon, Jun 20, 2011
Four Hundred Eleven Flights Completed As Of June 14
Since the last F-35 flight test program update issued May 11,
Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II has conducted 93 test flights,
bringing the total number of flights for the year to 411.
Overall, the F-35 program remains ahead of the overall goals for
test flights and test points year-to-date. Through May 31, the
program accomplished 378 flights versus a plan of 297 and
accomplished 3,342 test points against a plan of 2,217.
Several flight test and production key milestones were
accomplished since the last report:
- The F-35B short takeoff /vertical landing (STOVL) jet BF-1
performed the 100th vertical landing for the test program on May
12. For 2011, 106 vertical landings have been performed.
- The F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jet AF-1 flew
to Mach 1.53, the fastest-to-date speed of the existing aircraft
fleet. AF-7 completed the longest test mission to date
lasting 4.1 hours.
- During the month of May, all three variants of the F-35 flew a
combined total of 94 System Development and Demonstration (SDD)
flights, the most achieved in a single month in program
history.
- The F-35 program flew the most flights ever recorded on one day
(May 25) when a combined total of 10 flights (includes SDD and
LRIP) were completed at all three of its flight test locations at
Edwards Air Force Base (EAFB), Calif.; Fort Worth, Texas; and Naval
Air Station Patuxent River, Md. (PAX).
- The U.S. Air Force accepted into its fleet, the second of a
planned 1,763 production-model F-35 Lightning II stealth fighters
when AF-6 was delivered to EAFB on May 13. AF-6 was the
second aircraft in Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) lot one
contractually delivered.
- One of the first two F-35A production aircraft that will be
delivered to Eglin AFB, Fla., accomplished its first flight on May
13. Known as AF-9, the aircraft will be delivered to Eglin for
pilot and maintainer training later this year. This jet is the
second aircraft to fly from LRIP lot two.
- Two F-35C carrier variant (CV) aircraft, known as CF-2 and
CF-3, were delivered to the F-35 test fleet at PAX. CF-2 was
delivered May 16 and CF-3 delivered June 2.
- CF-2 successfully completed the first F-35 public fly by at the
Andrews AFB, Md., Joint Services Open House Air Show during the
opening ceremony for the event May 21.
The following statistics reflect the cumulative flight test
activity totals for 2011:
- F-35A CTOL jets have flown 183 times.
- F-35B STOVL aircraft have completed 166 flights.
- F-35C CV jets have flown 62 times.
- From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through June
13, 2011, F-35s flew 971 times, including the production-model
acceptance flights and AA-1.
The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th Generation fighter, combining
advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor
information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment.
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal
industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
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