Posted on 07/06/2006 7:49:16 PM PDT by nametrader
Pictures: Exclusive first photos of Lockheed Martin F-35 JSF ahead of official roll-out flightglobal.com has obtained exclusive photographs of Lockheed Martin's first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) as it emerged from the paint shop at Fort Worth, Texas ready for its formal roll-out and naming on 7 July.
Aircraft AA-1 (pictured below), an F-35A conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) variant of the JSF, is expected to fly by late October. As a result of a redesign to reduce the weight of the F-35B short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant, AA-1 is a one-off and not fully representive of the production JSF. It is being used to validate design, manufacturing, assembly and test processes for the 14 development flight-test aircraft that will follow.
Powered by a Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, AA-1 is equipped with most of the vehicle systems planned for later F-35s, including the fly-by-wire/power-by-wire flight controls and flat-panel cockpit displays. The mission systems, incuding active-array radar and 360deg infrared sensors, will be tested in later aircraft.
Assembly of the next flight-test aircraft, the first optimised-airframe STOVL F-35B, is already under way at Lockheed and partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, with the aircraft scheduled to fly in February 2008. The first optimised-airframe F-35A is to fly in August 2008 and the first F-35C carrier variant in Januray 2009.
AA-1 carries the flags of the eight international nations involved in development the JSF (pictured below): Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the UK, which is the only Level 1 partner. Lockheed and the US government are hoping the eight nations will sign a memorandum of understanding on the JSF production, sustainment and follow-on development phase in December.
welcome to Free Republic
ping!
Not a bad choice for your first post on FR. Welcome!
now lets see if Lockheed can get it in service with a sticker price less than the B2... they suck at cost control.
If you want on or off my aerospace ping list, please contact me by Freep mail.
When these dogs get into service, every other country in the world - you are behind, dudes. This bird will kick your best in the hinie and not break a sweat.
WOW thanks for the pictures...
I drive under these heading toward their landing in Fort Worth..on their test flights..
The flight path for Lockheed Martin's jets takes them right over my daughter's house...makes it shake a LOT.
I gotta have one.
THAT'S what I mean when I say 'Second Amendment'.
I want one.
Welcome to FreeRepublic!
To date we have so much information on the F22 most of us can draw its specs in our sleep.
The F35 OTOH is a little more mysterious.
Any hard data on capabilities?
Which do you like better? F-22 or F-35?
ping
If this is a VTOL or STOL a/c, then I personally think the West has made another mistake. The West always tries to load many mission capabilities onto one airframe. The Enemy assigns one, maybe two, mission capabilities to a given airframe. The West wins most battles because we have superior pilots while the other guys have a/c that are, at minimum, equal to ours, probably better at their few missions. In net, we win because of the better pilots although we handicap our pilots with a sluggishly performing a/c.
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