First F35 Exits Lockheed Martin Factory
by Staff Writers
Fort Worth TX (SPX) Feb 20, 2006

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team has completed assembly of the first F-35 aircraft and moved it out of the factory in preparation for an intensive period of ground testing. First flight of the F-35, a conventional takeoff and landing version, remains on schedule for this fall.

The first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter moves from the factory to a fueling facility at Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, on Feb.19 achieving another major milestone toward first flight planned later this year. Workers completed assembly of the aircraft on Feb. 17.

The move on Feb. 19 capped a thorough design update from the Concept Development Phase of the program, and an innovative production process that yielded unprecedented levels of assembly accuracy, fit and finish.

"Our team's engineers, mechanics and assemblers deserve high praise for the precise way in which this airplane came together with very few issues," said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and JSF program general manager. "The fact that this level of quality was achieved on our first aircraft, at the beginning of our learning curve, signals good things for the reliability and affordability of the thousands of F-35s that will follow."

Mechanics transferred the airplane to a nearby fueling facility where it will initially undergo a thorough fuel-system check-out. Structural coupling and ground-vibration testing will follow. Engine runs will begin in late spring and will lead into taxi tests in advance of first flight.

"I look at what this airplane is going to do, how it is going to change the nature of tactical warfare, and I am amazed," said Air Force Brig. Gen. C.R. Davis, deputy executive officer of the Joint Strike Fighter program. "This program is young, and plenty of hard work remains ahead, but the F-35's move to the flightline is a major milestone. It's a great day."

The stealthy F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th-generation fighter designed to replace aging AV-8B Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and United Kingdom Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers.

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 and Whitney F135 turbofan and the F136 turbofan from the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team. Each power plant produces 40,000 pounds of thrust, making the F-35 the most powerful single-engine fighter ever to fly.

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/First_F35_Exits_Lockheed_Martin_Factory.html

Evo dve slike pomenutog aviona

evo vam nekoliko slika.......

za "five stars"...mora da se vidi mnogo toga......pa donosim još.......

pogledajte istalaciju motora............

 

Lepo,lepo al ga Vitez (T-50)Su vec dere po svim testovima he he..

..........

Russians coming back......

Agence France Presse -- English

February 21, 2006 Tuesday 4:16 PM GMT

HEADLINE: Russia's Putin approves creation of Russian aviation giant

DATELINE: MOSCOW, Feb 21 2006

Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved the creation of a new state-controlled aircraft-building group with the aim of consolidating the fragmented Russian industry, the president's office said on Tuesday.

The new group, to be called UABC, or Unified Aircraft-Building Corporation, is to bring together Russian makers of military and civil aircraft and will be at least 75-percent owned by the Russian state.

"The proposition of the government to create an aeronautical company consolidated by the Russian Federation and the shareholders of aeronautic companies has been endorsed," said a decree published on the president's website.

State-owned manufacturer MiG, which produces the MiG fighter jets, and an aircraft factory in Kazan (KAPO), which makes Tupolev airliners, are to be initially integrated.

Discussions with other groups to determine their participation in the company are to take place between now and April 2007.

The Russian government hopes other groups will join UABC, including Sukhoi, which is in charge of the Russian Regional Jet programme, fighter plane manufacturer Irkut, Tupolev, Sokol, military group Ilyushin and the leasing group Ilyushin Finance Company.

The Russian Defence Minister Viktor Khristenko said last year that the Russian aeronautical sector should "increase its production by two and a half times by 2015 to reach 7.0 billion dollars (5.88 billion euros)".

The head of EADS Russia, Vadim Vlasov, told AFP that the creation of UABC was the first step of an initiative to bring together a number of Russian companies in the sector.

EADS owns 10 percent of Irkut and could become a minority shareholder in the new UABC structure.

"The signing of the decree represents the first stage in the creation of a consolidated aeronautical company, and it will lead to the merger of all the companies in the sector," said Vlasov.

He warned however of the danger of combining a number of groups, some of which are more profitable than others.

"It would be completely irrational if profitable companies like MiG and Sukhoi had to transfer the revenues from their exports to support surplus production capacity (of less successful companies) instead of investing in their own products and marketing," he said.

LOAD-DATE: February 21, 2006

baš me zanima kako če to sada da funkcioniše..

a što se tiče "Fifth generation Russian fighter plane ".......

Moscow: Russia's fifth-generation fighter plane will be ready in 2007, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Vladimir Mikhailov said Tuesday.

"Work to build the fifth-generation plane is going according to schedule," he said.

Mikhailov said, however, that the project had encountered some financial problems after civilian aircraft were produced using the money allocated in the budget for the fighter planes.

"Clearly, the development of aviation technology will depend on specific military and economic conditions, determining the progress of reform in the Russian armed forces and the country's aircraft construction industry. However, Russia will continue to be a leading aircraft-building power," he said.

Mikhailov also said the Russian Air Force would also receive new Su-34 bombers and Mi-28 combat helicopters during 2006.

The Air Force also expects to get a Yak-130 military aircraft trainer by the end of the year and the modernization of Su-27, Su-24 and Su-25 fighters is continuing, the general said.

"We are actively working on the modernization of MiG-29 and MiG-31 planes. New equipment could be installed in their cockpits that will increase their efficiency two and a half to three times," he said.
Related Stories.......

e pa vidjet čemo........

ali opet ovo nije tema da bi se pričalo o ovom..."offtopic".....

Aviation Week & Space Technology

February 27, 2006

HEADLINE: F-35 in Ground Tests;
Fuel system, structural coupling checks to be followed by engine runs and taxi tests

BYLINE: Edward H. Phillips

A preproduction F-35A Joint Strike Fighter is entering a series of ground-based tests as Lockheed Martin begins grooming the airplane for its first flight in autumn.

Initial tests will include fueling the aircraft and evaluating the fuel system, structural coupling (interactions between the flight control system and airframe vibration modes) and ground-vibration testing (flutter checks), says Doug Pearson, vice president of the F-35 Integrated Test Force.

If these are successful, Pearson expects engine runs and taxi tests will begin late this spring. The Pratt & Whitney F135 engine was installed in the airplane for a fit check last month. Nine F135s have accumulated more than 4,500 hr. of testing.

Other systems tests will focus on operation of the integrated power package (APU, emergency power unit and environmental control), structural proof loads and flight loads calibration, and high-intensity radiated fields (electromagnetic interference). In addition to test flights, six F-35s will serve on the ground as static and durability airframes for each JSF version and will be tested to 150% of design limit load.

The preproduction prototype airplane is an F-35A (serial No. 2AA-0001) built as a conventional takeoff and landing version, and is heavier than production airplanes. It is the first of 22 F-35s that will be built as part of the JSF program's System Development and Demonstration Phase.

Lockheed Martin has begun fabrication of the first F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing version (with shaft-driven lift fan) for the U.S. Marine Corps and the U.K.'s Royal Navy. The first airplane is tentatively scheduled to fly late in 2007. Plans call for work on the F-35C carrier-borne version to begin early next year.

Pearson says the flight-test program will involve nearly 7,000 sorties during the next six years. The F-35 will replace the A-10, F-16, F/A-18 and AV-8B Harrier in service with the U.S. military, as well as the Harrier GR.7 and Sea Harrier in the Royal Navy.

GRAPHIC: photograph, LOCKHEED MARTIN

LOAD-DATE: March 2, 2006

polječe.......u 8 mjesecu.......bravo..........

wvi i linka ako nekog zanima video materijal..............http://www.jsf.mil/gallery/gal_video.htm

evo donosim kakav je to avion u usporedbi sa F-16C 50/52 te F/A-18E