"This is the completed center fuselage that will be used in the new F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft. Northrop Grumman employees unveiled the fuselage at a celebration Saturday"
Posted on 04/24/2005 9:24:07 AM PDT by BenLurkin
PALMDALE - The next generation of fighter aircraft took one step closer to reality Saturday in an Air Force Plant 42 hangar as aerospace officials celebrated their contribution to a revolutionary project. Northrop Grumman employees unveiled a center fuselage that will be used in the F-35 joint strike fighter, a stealthy, affordable, high-performance aircraft that will eventually grace the ranks of the Navy, Air Force, and Marines, as well as Britain's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and the forces of other U.S. allies.
"The world is going to see us today," said Janis Pamilgans, Northrop Grumman F-35 program manager. "Antelope Valley manufacturing is here, we're part of the challenge, and we're committed to making this happen."
A ceremony showcasing the fuselage Saturday afternoon was attended by more than 3,000 people, most of whom were Northrop Grumman employees and their families.
Northrop Grumman Corp. is a principal subcontractor for the F-35 program, led by Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. The fuselage constructed here will soon be shipped to a Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, for final assembly. It will return to the Antelope Valley as part of the completed F-35 aircraft and will be tested at Edwards Air Force Base.
"This will be the first real fighter designed, built and flown exclusively in the 21st century," said test pilot Jon Beesley, who will conduct the first flight once the aircraft is complete in August 2006.
Beesley gestured toward a large sign in the hangar displaying a popular aircraft manufacturing slogan.
"I hope you built it like you're gonna fly it, because I'm going to," he said, amid laughter from the crowd.
"But I won't be flying alone. I'll be flying with each of you who contributed to this project. Of course I'll have a much better seat than everyone else."
About 100 local employees worked on the fuselage, many of whom had experience working on the F-18 at Northrop Grumman's El Segundo facility.
"This is the best quality I've seen … the prettiest workmanship I've seen," said Bob Elrod, Program Manager for Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth.
After the fuselage is trucked to Texas, workers there will mate it with the forward fuselage May 9. The following week, the wing will be under construction. A British subcontractor, BEA, will deliver the aft fuselage and tail for assembly. In September, power will be turned on, and the following year - August 2006 - the aircraft will take flight.
The F-35 will undergo several years of testing before full-rate production begins in 2013. Aerospace officials plan to produce one aircraft a day when the program hits full throttle.
Pamilgans said program managers pulled expertise from auto manufacturers in Detroit in order to ease the mass-assembly process.
"We're learning from the technologies of non-aerospace-related industries in order to be more efficient," Pamilgans said.
The center fuselage of future F-35 planes will be built in the Antelope Valley, maintaining production jobs here and creating new ones.
"It's pretty spectacular. It's an ongoing tradition," said state Sen. George Runner, who attended the ceremony Saturday. "This project is going to go on for 15, 20 years at least. That's creating long-term employment."
Runner also credited the JSF tax-credit bill he introduced in 1998, which helped keep manufacturing jobs in California.
So, while aerospace officials in Palmdale celebrated the completion of the first F-35 center fuselage, they know their work is by no means over.
"This is going to be an exciting next dozen years for us. This is where it begins." Beesley said.
Added Elrod, in his southern drawl: "Next stop, Fort Worth, Texas."
"This is the completed center fuselage that will be used in the new F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft. Northrop Grumman employees unveiled the fuselage at a celebration Saturday"
Base Price: $150M FOB Detroit
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Wings: Extra
Destroying 8 targets with small diameter munitions, priceless.
To kick Chinese -ss.
The JSF is also an NAVY/MARINE aircraft, as well as an export fighter. It will get built.
Perhaps. In far fewer numbers, as a VTOL airplane. If they can trim more weight.
The last generation of manned aircraft, they better be able to runinate Migs.
Huh, my mistake.
What kind of defence can you have against a weapon whose "projectile" travels at the speed of light and can't be seen? The current laser puts out an average of 10kW but they expect to have a 100kW version by 2007. It raises some interesting questions.
Not a chance in hell will it get built. It is too fat and cannot perform its mission. Its lack of range makes the Hornet actually look good in this area. Big engines drink big gas. The JSF is going to die in spectacular fashion.
I'd never guess what that is just looking at the picture.
Keep dreaming.
This is it!
If you knew anything about me, you would know that I don't have to dream about this. That sucker is dead, dead, dead. Right now, its nothing but a jobs program that will end exactly when it should.
Take the pilot out of the aircraft, and you greatly simplify the engineering. You can have an aircraft that can maneuver at tens of gravities, and they can be much cheaper than existing aircraft.
Right now that means having high-bandwidth, secure communications so that a human can control it from elsewhere. That's essentially a solved problem. It may not be foolproof, but it only has to be good enough. And I predict that before a decade is over, we'll have software that can shred any human pilot.
You've been saying that for years, but I see it going on and on.
You'll probably be saying the same thing when they are in active service in a bit.
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