F-35 Lightning II (2) testing and production thread

Test pilot was Graham Tomlinson, - a former Royal Air Force Harrier pilot now employed by BAE Systems.

More pictures, including inflight ones.. here.
images.teamjsf.com...

www.flightglobal.com...

Boeing is “spreading lies and half-truths” about the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme in a “desperate and disgraceful” effort to bolster domestic and foreign sales of its F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, according to US Air Force Lt Gen Charles “CR” Davis, a JSF programme executive.

and

Contacted for a response, Tom Bell, a Boeing business development official, said he was unaware of the specific comments that triggered Davis’ outburst, and so he could not give a direct response.

More generally, however, Bell pointed out that two JSF development partners – Australia and Denmark – have already acquired or are considering acquiring F/A-18E/F’s instead.

“People with greater insight than I are looking at the offerings available,” Bell said. “Let people draw their own conclusions about why.”

OUCH

are boeing trying to piss everyone off?

Older news but still news that should be covered here. The F-135 Powerplant is that much closer to completing testing with this announcement.

Achieving 10,000 test hours is one of a series of milestones for the F135’s SDD ground test program.  Pratt & Whitney’s F135 conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) engine continues to power the F-35 Lightning II flight test program with 43 flight tests and more than 52 flight test hours to date.  Pratt & Whitney’s F135 short take-off and landing (STOVL) propulsion system powered the first flight of the F-35B on June 11, and has accomplished a total of three flight tests and 2.4 flight hours to date.

The article can be found on the newly updated F-35 site found here:
www.jsf.mil...


[edit on 24-7-2008 by Canada_EH]

Also more news on the 35 program and its procurement into the forces. Evidently they think its going to be to slow.... I wonder why

The Air Force wants to double its F-35 Lightning II buy over the next five years using $5 billion in recapitalization money that will begin to flow in fiscal year 2010, Gen. Norton Schwartz, President Bush’s nominee to be the next Air Force Chief of Staff, said this week.

Wow E this is crazy. No news really on the JSF front for a month and then all hell breaks lose. Now its news on the F-135 powerplant and the fact thats its now going to go over budget again... I'll let them explain.

The F135 is the first engine being developed to power Lockheed Martin's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and US military officials and P&W have campaigned to make it the sole power source for the aircraft.

Disclosure of the new cost pressures, including a media report of an $850 million overrun, will provide a boost for the alternate JSF engine programme - the General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136. The US Congress is debating whether to keep the programme alive, despite the Pentagon's decision for the third year in a row to eliminate funding.

P&W attributes the cost pressures to an "unfavourable foreign exchange rate, the cost of materials, global market influences and other factors". The company says: "It is premature to discuss the exact cost impact at this time."

www.flightglobal.com...



I'm sure all americans continue to believe that the Air Force where idiots in the tanker mess but I must say that seeing Congress try to cut out the good leg from under a very heavy project is more then stupidity. We have been seeing the issues for a good year now where the H E double hockey sticks are they getting there information from on this?

[edit on 25-7-2008 by Canada_EH]

The F-35 appears to be on track and even slightly ahead of
the game in terms of cost.

www.airforce-magazine.com...

I haven't read the article btw yet.

Interesting tidbit on Canada's procurement ideas or possible changes. Must say I sorta had a hunch this could happen or at least be looked at as a possibility.

Canada considers F-35 carrier variant
Canada may scrap plans to buy some conventional F-35A Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft in favour of F-35C carrier variants well suited for cold weather and Arctic operations, according to a defence industry source close to the JSF programme. Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Canadian media on 12 May that Canada would buy 65 JSF aircraft instead of the 80 aircraft it was expected to buy under an agreement to provide funds for Production, Sustainment and Follow-on Development (PFSD) of the aircraft ...

www.defense-aerospace.com...



scroll down to

Provides full funding for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but redistributes funds within the program. The Committee reduces airframe production funding by a total of $786 million, but increases funding by a total of $785 million for $430 million for development of an alternative engine, and $320 million for risk mitigation in the test program (including the restoration of two test aircraft eliminated by the DoD last year).

seems like the issues at P&W don`t sit well with the DoD - cost overuns and the earlier failures.

JSF Delays Pile Up
Posted by Bill Sweetman at 8/11/2008 6:59 AM CDT


Graham Warwick's report on the latest delays to hit the JSF flight-test program undercuts most of the optimistic predictions made by industry and government leaders earlier in the summer. It's now clear that problems with the F135 engine and other issues have forced another delay in the start of the "build-down" flight tests that precede the demonstration of the F-35B's short take off, vertical landing (STOVL) capability.

This sequence of 20 flights, reaching progressively lower speeds, was planned for the first quarter of 2009, and as recently as mid-July (at the Farnborough air show) Lockheed Martin program vice-president Tom Burbage said in an interview that these tests and the first vertical landing would be carried out in the first quarter. (So did JSF program office director Gen. Charles Davis in a June interview.)

Now, the build-down tests won't start until the second quarter and the location for the first vertical landing - which had been planned to follow a move from Fort Worth to Patuxent River - is once again open. DTI's prediction in our last issue that a vertical landing would not happen until well into the second quarter now looks optimistic.

blog

Bugger the stovl get the A and C finished and finish the B later.
Most will be normal flight anyway

reply to post by Jezza


Agreed Jezza
Most Countries in Europe and Aus/Can are looking for CTOL aircraft. We are probably still looking at 2012 IOC as not happening though know till much later. CAN is fine with just the CF-188 till 2018 with the modernized aircraft but AUS is in a much tighter spot with the defense requirements and the timeline that appears to be further the supposed gap for the RAAF.

Bugger that , the RAF and USMC want the Stovl version NOW.

put the other 2 on hold and get the STOVL one working - or better yet scrap the F135 engine for being utter crap and use the perfectly working F136.

reply to post by Harlequin


I agree on the f-136 point but I disagree that the less purchased version out of the 3 should be put on the fast track. Never mind the fact that it has the most technical issues out of the 3. If you get success with the A version early it can smooth the road for funding of the B if it hits snags.

norway.usembassy.gov...

photos.state.gov...

And the best part of the whole thing:

Green Production, Green Operations, Green Support.

Hydrazine ------ None
Class I/II ODC ------- None
Halon -------- None
VOC Emissions -------- VOC-Exempt Solvents
Lead and Lead Compounds ------ Solder Only
Support Equipment Emissions ------ 25–50% Lower Than F-16
Engine Air Emissions -------- 50% Less CO, 82% Less VOC Than F-16
Beryllium -------- Only in Highly Loaded Busing
Production ----- Numerous Awards
Chromium Primer ------ None

F-35 - the GREEN choice. LOL I guess the Hydrazine lack of is really good.

NEZ? No Escape Zone? Nup."Northern Economic Zone".

Block 5 w/ 6 AMRAAM-D?

& Su-37 that looks like J-10.

[edit on 14/8/2008 by C0bzz]

Interesting Article on the ramp up in Lockheed for the F-35 and the added fact of a Fighter a Day being thrown around for a plane that is behind schedule

Enjoy

Lockheed Martin Corp. plans to assemble the stealth plane here on a moving assembly line using digital processes and automation techniques that are new to the defense aerospace sector, says Steve O’Bryan of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 business development team.

Though car manufacturers have built millions of vehicles on automated assembly lines, the concept of moving lines has not been applied to military aircraft since World War II.

Modern warplanes typically have been built in small quantities over the course of many years. The Navy’s F/A-18, which has been in production for more than 20 years, is being built at a rate of 42 aircraft per year. But the F-35 Lightning II is expected to be built at an unprecedented rate — as many as 230 fighters per year.

Lockheed has embraced the moving assembly line concept as the linchpin to produce the next-generation fighter in large enough quantities to satisfy U.S. and international sales.
The U.S. military is buying about 2,500 aircraft. Allied nations are purchasing an additional 500 or so. Lockheed Martin officials are expecting foreign military sales to hike the total number to more than 4,000 Joint Strike Fighters.

You can the find the rest of it here:
www.nationaldefensemagazine.org...

Meh for me all the hype seems premature with the issues that the testing is facing now. Especially with the B model and the issues with getting into the progress slower flights etc.

reply to post by Canada_EH


As I understood it, I thought the F-16 was too, built at extreme rates similar to the F-35?

Originally posted by C0bzz
As I understood it, I thought the F-16 was too, built at extreme rates similar to the F-35?

Your right it was but the first production line built the F-16A. Meaning one airframe for one mission over time it expanded to include about 3 different variants being built at one time in plants but take note that this was after they had sorted issues or some of them at least in the production of the plane. And for the most part the parts and airframes are very similar.

I get the feeling that the 35 is to different from the get go when it comes to 3 variants to start as opposed to the 16's one. Its biting off more then they can chew. in time yes you will have a line that works much like the 16's but its too much at once and the hardest plane to develop is the one that gets all the press! Personally as I said to Har they need to get the stuff in order with the A model and get it into early production ASAP and take the heat of the B model because other then the RAF no one other then the MArines and a couple of the USAF are taking them. build the A and get the other buyers to issue some happy media about how they can be getting the planes soon ie Aus and Can and the European buyers.

some more good news

Fourth F-35 Lightning II Rolls Out as Production Line Fills Up at Lockheed Martin

(Source: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company; issued August 18, 2008)



FORT WORTH, Texas --- With one F-35 Lightning II aircraft in structural testing, two in flight test, six in final assembly and another 14 in various stages of production, Lockheed Martin added to the program's momentum on Saturday by finishing assembly of the fourth F-35 aircraft, a short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) F-35B.

"The completion of our fourth F-35 -- and the growing line of aircraft now forming behind it -- shows an emerging rhythm in our production line," said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager. "In just a few days we will have all three Lightning II variants in final assembly when we take delivery of the first F-35C carrier variant center fuselage. From the very first F-35, assembly quality has been unprecedented, and each successive aircraft is measurably better than the one that preceded it."

defe nse-aerospace

Hope this is the right topic...

Fighter manufacturer offers deal if Canada commits to purchase.

U.S. aerospace giant Lockheed Martin hopes to offer Canada and other nations interested in its high-tech Joint Strike Fighter a deal that would see the price of each aircraft ordered set at around $50 million US in return for countries committing to the purchase by a certain time.

There has been some concern among nations, including Canada, about the final price of the JSF. Australia has estimated the price tag for the aircraft will be $70 million US per plane when it takes delivery of its aircraft in 2013, according to media reports.

Other nations have considered delaying their purchases since the cost of the planes is expected to be higher at the beginning of the program.

But Lockheed Martin hopes to have a fixed price for the aircraft ready for various countries to consider by next year, said Tom Burbage, Lockheed's general manager for JSF program integration.

www.canada.com...

2002 dollars? Why is there so much variance in price? At least, it may be figured out next year....

[edit on 30/9/2008 by C0bzz]

reply to post by C0bzz


Yeah Lockheed was talking about getting a fix price to ease the concerns for all parties involved but with them dragging their feet doing it I'm unsure or not convinced it will happen now.

CDI

Even without new problems, the F-35 is a 'dog.' If one accepts every performance promise the DoD currently makes for the aircraft, the F-35 will be: "Overweight and underpowered: at 49,500 lb (22,450kg) air-to-air take-off weight with an engine rated at 42,000 lb of thrust, it will be a significant step backward in thrust-to-weight ratio for a new fighter. " At that weight and with just 460 sq ft (43 m2) of wing area for the air force and Marine Corps variants, it will have a 'wing-loading' of 108 lb per square foot. Fighters need large wings relative to their weight to enable them to manoeuvre and survive. The F-35 is actually less manoeuvrable than the appallingly vulnerable F-105 'Lead Sled' that got wiped out over North Vietnam in the Indochina War.

given that accountablility will be needed within the entire USA for the runaway spending on the banks bailout(s) - will the F-35 be chopped?

[edit on 1/10/08 by Harlequin]