Fri, Feb 05, 2010
First Flight Included Basic Handling, Landing Gear
Operation
A Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical
landing (STOVL) stealth fighter became the fifth F-35 to begin
flight operations Tuesday.
The jet, known as BF-3, departed the runway near Lockheed
Martin's Fort Worth plant at 1602 CST for its first flight. During
the one-hour sortie, F-35 Chief Test Pilot Jon Beesley tested the
aircraft's handling qualities, engine functionality, landing gear
operation and basic subsystem performance.
BF-3 joins two other F-35Bs and one F-35A conventional takeoff
and landing (CTOL) aircraft currently undergoing active flight
test. The first CTOL F-35, AA-1, is now preparing for live-fire
testing. The F-35 program continues to accelerate the time from
flight line arrival to first flight.
BF-3 was built and instrumented to conduct flight sciences test
work and will be used primarily to evaluate vehicle systems and
expand the aircraft's aerodynamic and structural-loads envelope. It
will deploy later this year to Naval Air Station Patuxent River,
MD, where it will carry and release most of the weapons the F-35B
will employ in combat.
BF-3 and all other Lightning II aircraft will be supported by
the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System and monitored by
the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Global Sustainment Operations Center
in Fort Worth. F-35 sustainment is based upon the principles of
Performance-Based Logistics, involving extensive partnering
agreements between government and industry. The F-35 team has
developed an advanced sustainment system capability with
designed-in sustainability that will reduce overall life-cycle
costs and ensure mission readiness.
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal
industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two
separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the
Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team
F136.
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