Posted on 01/29/2011 10:15:50 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
Lockheed Martin flew the fifth STOVL F-35B yesterday (Jan 27), taking the number of aircraft in the development flight-test program to 10. The fourth CTOL F-35A, meanwhile, was ferried to Edwards AFB on Jan 22.Under the current plan, two more development aircraft remain to fly, F-35C carrier variants CF-2 and -3. They are expected to ferry to NAS Patuxtent River by June. But construction of a third CV test jet, CF-5, has begun and more aircraft of all three variants will be added to the flight-test program under the replan now being put in place.
Lockheed's CEO, Roberts Stevens, told analysts yesterday that the company is planning to complete 872 test flights this year, more than double the 410 flights achieved in 2010. In addition to the four CTOL, five STOVL and three CV test jets, the first two production F-35As, AF-6 and -7, will fly in the test program this year.
(Excerpt) Read more at aviationweek.com ...
Six years behind schedule, billions in the hole, unit prices steadily increasing....here is a thought: Cancel the project before it becomes a flying blackhole and buy more F-22s.... =.=
What good will that do the Marine Corps and the Navy?
None, but what good does the F-35 provide when the unit price of them far exceeds any and all unit price projections of the Navy and Marines. So according to your logic, the project could be 20 years behind schedule, tens of billions in the hole, and have unit price costs so exorbitant that they become unattainable and definately not cost-effective....but still buy them, because the Navy and Marines have no other alternative, huh?
FORT WORTH, Texas, January 28th, 2011 -- The last Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35B Lightning II assigned to developmental flight testing departs Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base on its first flight Thursday. Known as BF-5, the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) jet will ferry to NAS Patuxent River, Md., later this year, where it will join four F-35Bs and one F-35C carrier variant aircraft currently undergoing testing. (Lockheed Martin photo by Randy Crites)
Your knee jerk solution is fecal in nature.
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