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First JSF Mostly Mated
The first system development and demonstration phase F-35 JSF is on schedule for first flight in August 2006, say representatives from the program office and Lockheed Martin. The conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) version, to be powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, is being assembled in Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth facility with most of the fuselage now mated sans horizontal and vertical stabilizers. The first flight-test aircraft, called A1, will be geometrically identical to the production aircraft but not structurally the same due to its flight test equipment, says Lockheed Martin executive vp and F-35 general manager Tom Burbage.
According to Burbage the fuselage will soon be complete, as one set of stabilizers arrives next week and the other in July. First electrical power-up is slated for later this summer in advance of the PW F135 delivery in December. Burbage says about 60% of the six million lines of flight software code will be completed by first flight. Meanwhile the radar system, built by Northrop Grumman at its Maryland facilities, is up and running and tracking targets, Burbage says. —John Croft
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