Lockheed Martin F-35 CATBird Shows Key Avionics
Capability/Reliability Over Edwards
The skies over Edwards AFB are no stranger to the unusual, but
a converted Lockheed Martin B737 testbed takes some getting used to
after the first glance. The Joint Strike Fighter Cooperative
Avionics Test Bed ("CATBird") aircraft has just completed a
two-week deployment to Edwards, where it demonstrated the features
of avionics being developed for the F-35 Lightning II.
The deployment included successful airborne testing of the F-35
Lightning II radar, electronic warfare and
communications/navigation/identification systems and more than 2.8
million lines of mission systems flight software. The testing
reduces hardware and software risks that cannot be retired in
ground laboratories and individual sensor test beds before testing
of the first mission systems equipped F-35 aircraft later this
year.
CATBird, a highly modified 737 airliner equipped with the
integrated F-35 mission systems suite, left for Edwards on April 14
and returned to Lockheed Martin's Fort Worth plant as planned on
April 24. During the deployment, CATBird conducted 10 mission
systems test flights successfully evaluating the radar, CNI, and EW
infrastructure and sensor function.
The joint industry/government F-35 Integrated Test Force at
Edwards AFB provided logistic support, ranges, and ground and air
targets.
"Performance of the aircraft infrastructure and on-board sensors
exceeded my expectations and gives the test team added confidence
that we are on track to fly the first mission systems F-35 aircraft
this summer," said Doug Pearson, Lockheed Martin vice president of
the F-35 Integrated Test Force. "The deployment was superbly
supported by the Air Force Flight Test Center."
Airborne avionics testing aboard the CATBird and other flying
test beds is under way concurrently with ongoing validation in
ground-based laboratories that has amassed tens of thousands of
hours of testing time.
The F-35 will have the most comprehensive and powerful avionics
suite of any fighter in history, with a Northrop Grumman active
electronically scanned array radar, electro-optical distributed
aperture system and CNI system; a Lockheed Martin electro-optical
targeting system; a BAE Systems electronic warfare system; and
other advanced systems providing information that is totally
integrated before being presented to the pilot on a VSI
helmet-mounted display and a touch-screen glass cockpit
display.
The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth
fighter. Three variants derived from a common design, developed
together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide
will replace at least 13 types of aircraft for 11 nations
initially, making the Lightning II the most cost-effective fighter
program in history.