The 737-400 Will Replicate F-35 Avionics Suite For Testing

ANN has learned the Joint Strike Fighter Cooperative Avionics Test Bed (CATB), a 737-300 aircraft extensively modified by BAE Systems, successfully completed its maiden flight January 23 at Mojave, California capping a near three-year modification program.

The aircraft, also known as the "CAT-Bird," is a flying test bed replicating the F-35 avionics suite. The CATB will help BAE develop and verify the F-35’s capability to collect data from multiple sensors for display on proprietary cockpit systems.

"Today’s flight caps what has been a significant technical challenge," said John Wall, BAE Systems CATB program director in Mojave, where the work was performed. "The CAT-Bird is helping the Lightning II take its place as the premier fighter aircraft serving the US and multi-nation partners for decades to come."

BAE told ANN the CAT-Bird is now in a one-month test flight phase to prove the aerodynamics of the converted airliner -- an important required validation of modifications made to accommodate the avionics test requirements. Included among them was the addition of a nose extension to simulate that of the F-35, a 42-foot-long spine on the top, a 10-foot "canoe" on the bottom to accommodate electronic equipment, and twin 12-foot sensor wings that replicate the leading edge of the F-35’s wings.

Inside the aircraft, BAE replicated an F-35 cockpit allowing the sensor inputs to be displayed as they will in the fighter itself. The rest of the interior houses equipment racks for the avionics, and 20 workstations for technicians to assess systems performance.

"The CAT-Bird is a vitally important and powerful tool in Lockheed Martin’s arsenal for early risk mitigation and maturation of the F-35," said Doug Pearson, Lockheed Martin’s vice president of the F-35 Integrated Test Force. "It allows us to concurrently develop and integrate mission systems hardware and software well before it is installed on F-35s. We congratulate BAE Systems on today’s successful first flight and look forward to many years of productive flight test operation."

The maiden flight was the first of about 20 sorties comprising CAT-Bird’s initial test phase according to BAE. After completing some additional modification work and the initial flight test phase, BAE will take the CATB to Lockheed Martin's facility in Fort Worth, TX to begin test operations in developing and evaluating the F-35's extensive sensor architecture.

FMI: www.baesystems.com