Forum: F-35 milestones

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/news_ite ... tem_id=638

F-35B BF-13 First Flight

Photo by Carl RichardsLockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti flew F-35B BF-12 (Navy Bureau Number 168309), on its inaugural flight on 12 March 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB.

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BF-12 (VM-07) tried twice today. One of those tries she made it all the way to the runway. Hopefully she will make it up into the air tomorrow.

Care to elaborate?

SpudmanWP wrote:

Care to elaborate?

The jet ground aborted twice and maintenance deviations will be the highlight of the morning production meeting Rolling Eyes

Ouch... any clues as to why?

Someone forget to fill they tires? Smile

btw, I was not trying to be rude, just it was Tally's first post and was a bit vague on the details.

Tally, why no posts in 9 years?

Navy Bureau Number 168309, the jet is BF-12 or BF-13?

who can help me, thanks?

number on the tail - 08.

BF-10 - 05
BF-11 - 06
BF-12 - 07 (It would be logical)
BF-13 - 08.

In my opinion - all clear.

BF-13. Just fixed it. My bad.

--C1

Wrong post - too early in the morning for me - it was BF-13 in title OK but BF-13 in text that was changed. Twisted Evil

The EXIF of that pic is 03/21/12 09:21

codeonemagazine wrote:

BF-13. Just fixed it. My bad.

--C1

Doesn't make sense, are you sure the BF-13 first flight was on March 12 and not on March 21 (like BF-11)? look at the EXIF data of the pic's.

It's amazing what's going on, with BF-12 it's gonna be 7 birds to make first flight in ONE month.
Seems like LM speeding up the production...

Noticed 2 things:
1. BF-13 got premier color (something we didn't see for long time)
2. 5 out of the 7 are B's, that's supporting the USMC decision to get IOC next year with block 2B

Good luck!

F-35B BF-12 First Flight 30 March 2012

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/news_ite ... tem_id=642

"Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti flew F-35B BF-12 (Navy Bureau Number 168308), on its inaugural flight on 30 March 2012 from NAS Fort Worth JRB. The aircraft will be assigned to VMFAT-501 at Eglin AFB, Florida."

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/images/n ... 4_6427.jpg

BF-13 first flight was indeed on the 12th. No one captured a shot of the takeoff or landing. So we waited for a photo of the second flight to post with the first flight milestone. Hope that clears up everything. I'll put a clarification in the caption.

--C1

codeonemagazine wrote:

BF-13 first flight was indeed on the 12th. No one captured a shot of the takeoff or landing. So we waited for a photo of the second flight to post with the first flight milestone. Hope that clears up everything. I'll put a clarification in the caption.--C1

Thank you for clearing it up!
BTW, during one month (march 2012) 7 birds made FF (7 out of 31 is 22.5% of the fleet).
It's a coincidence or that's what we gonna see from now on?

The current rate of production is 4 birds a month. If weather or some other stuff caused delays then 7 in a months is plausible.

The USAF FY 2013 PB Production Schedule has 3 jets delivered (1-A, 2-B) in April, 3 jets (1-A, 2-B) in May, 2 jets (1-A, 1-B) in June, 3 jets (1-A, 2-B) in July - which is the balance of LRIP-III (FY2009) jets. For the rest of FY12, there are 3 jets (1-A, 2-B) in August, 3 jets (1-A, 1-B, 1-C) in September - all LRIP-IV (FY2010) jets. October (beginning of FY2013) continues LRIP-IV with 4 jets (2-A, 1-B, 1-C), in November, 2 jets (1-A, 1-B), and December, 5 jets (1-A, 3-B, 1-C).

From CY2013 - CY2017, there are generally 2-4 jets delivered per month, with a few exceptions. Starting in CY2018, the rate increases to 5-6 jets per month.

Forum: F-35 milestones

F-35B, BF-12 or BF-13?