Lockheed Martin F-35 Program Exceeds 2011 Flight Test Goals

(It looks like Spazsinbad is still eating breakfast! No worries Spaz I got this one!)

Lockheed Martin F-35 Program Exceeds 2011 Flight Test Goals

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/12/4182799/lockheed-martin-f-35-program-exceeds.html#storylink=cpy

The overall F-35 SDD flight test program plan calls for the verification of 59,585 test points through developmental test flights by Dec. 31, 2016. Through 2011, the flight test team has accomplished 12,728 test points or 21.4 percent of overall testing requirements.

Anyone know how many test points the teens had to accomplish?

That is a tricky question because both the YF-16 and YF-17 were heavily modified during initial production.

In the case of the F-16, that is irrelevant, since zero YF-16 test data was applicable to fulfilling F-16 FSD flight test data requirements. It all had to be done over again since there was nothing in common between the two airplanes. The number of test points was not reduced by the existence of prototype test results. I suspect the same was true for the YF-17 vs the F/A-18. Certainly, much good information was gained during the prototype fly-off, but the primary use of the information was to get a quick-start on FSD design, knowing what worked and what needed improvement. There was justified confidence the FSD airplane would get through development and into production without much difficulty.

Just crunching some F-35 test point numbers......

*The F-35 SDD flight test program plan calls for the verification of 59,585 test points through developmental test flights by Dec. 31, 2016.


*Through 2011, the flight test team has accomplished 12,728 test points or 21.4 percent of overall testing requirements.


*The 2011 flight test plan called for the accumulation of 872 flights and 6,622 test points by Dec. 31.


*The F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) variant flew 474 flights and accomplished 3,600 test points.

*The F-35B Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant accomplished 333 flights and 2,636 test points.

*The F-35C Carrier Variant (CV) flew 165 flights and tallied 1,587 test points. Along with this, the STOVL executed 268 vertical landings.


Calculations:

A) How many Test Points flown per day in 2011?

7,823/365= 21.4 test points per day


B) How many test points left in the F-35 program to be completed as January 1st, 2012?

59,585-12,728= 46 857 test points remaining


C) At the current flight test rate how many days will be required to compete all the F-35's flight test points?

46 857/21.4= 2190 days required to complete remaining test points.


D) How many weeks is that?

2190/7=313 Weeks required to complete remaining test points.


E) How many years is that?

313/52=6.02 Years required to compete remaining F-35 test points.


F) In 2011 how many test points were achieved per F-35 flight?

6,622 points/872 flights= 7.6 tests points per flight (rounded up)


G) At the current rate how many remaining test flights will be required to compete the F-35 test program.

46857 test points/7.6 tests points per flight = 6166 tests flights required to complete all the test points

There are more SDD aircraft coming online so that rate will increase. Also, the number of test flight is hig due to computer simulations not benig certified. If/when that happens, the number of test flight can go down.

We should have a contest where every has to guess the final number of test flights and test points.

It depends upon how you define "exceeds 2011 flight test goals." From a report made public (leaked?) this morning, both the F-35A (-11%) and -B (-9%) did not complete planned test points for the year, while the -C completed 32% more than planned.

"The flight rate in flight sciences testing for all variants in 2011 matched or exceeded the new, restructured flight test plan for 2011. Measurements of progress based on test points accomplished indicate mixed results for flight sciences of the three variants: both the F-35B Short Take-Off/Vertical-Landing (STOVL) variant and the F-35A Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) variant are behind schedule (9 and 11 percent, respectively), and the F-35C Carrier Variant (CV) is 32 percent ahead."

From (until end of Nov 2011): http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2 ... r-from.pdf (0.24Mb)

As the chart on page 25 of the DOT&E report says (posted above; thank-you Spaz) the "end of the year" data apparently ended in November -- at least where F-35 was concerned.

Yes, the data in the report appears to end in November. Does LM data use different start and end points?

@ quicksilver..... the data the article quoted was for the end of the December 2011 which may be a different calander then that of the F-35 program. I am not sure about that.

The DOT&E report data ends in November (see the fine print in the light blue shaded section of the chart above; "Actual versus Planned Test Points through November 2011"). The "LM data" (blessed by the US government's JPO) is for the entire year (which includes December on this part of the planet). The language in the DOT&E report would have you believe (intentionally or otherwise) that they (DOT&E) used data for the entire year -- they did not, as the chart clearly shows. They excluded all of the flights and test points completed during December from their totals.

Each of the variants exceeded the 2011 test plan for both flights and test points completed -- significantly so. And as I pointed out in another thread, everyone who works in developmental flight test knows that credit for test point completion lags the points actually flown due to analysis requirements -- some test points require more post-flight analysis than others before the program is given credit for 'completion' of the points.

quicksilver thanks for clarification and insight into 'test point completion' requirements.

Some more calculations:

H) How many test points per day would have to flown if they wanted to compete the test program in five years instead of six?

46857 test points / 5 years = 9 371.4 tests points per year

9371.4 test per year /365 day= 25.68 test points per day


I) How many test points per day would have to flown if they wanted to compete the test program in four years instead of six?

46857 test points / 4 years = 11714.25 tests points per year

11714.25 tests points per year/365=32.1 test points per day