News

Lockheed Martin has awarded Cytec Engineered Materials a contract worth up to $750 million to supply advanced materials to be used in the construction of the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter through 2013.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team has completed assembly of the first F-35 jet 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.

Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to define their future collaboration on the F135 propulsion system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF).

The Joint Strike Fighter Integrated Test Force will pull an F-16 out of a special hangar Saturday, marking the culmination of a series of unique tests at Edwards AFB.

While waiting on the delivery of a wiring harness necessary for full integration of the Pratt & Whitney F-135 engine, Lockheed Martin conducted a successful engine fit check on the floor of its Ft. Worth, TX assembly plant earlier this month.

In the federal budget proposal recently sent to the U.S. Congress, President George W. Bush has apparently decided to cancel a multi-billion dollar contract with General Electric and Rolls-Royce to develop and manufacture a second engine for the Lockheed F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

BAE Systems has begun production of the first U.K. components for the first F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. The F-35B is the Short TakeOff Vertical Landing (STOVL) variant of the F-35 family.

The U.S. Navy has dedicated a $24 million facility at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., for testing of the Navy and Marine Corps' newest jets: the Lockheed Martin F-35B and F-35C Joint Strike Fighter.

Joint Strike Fighter chief test pilot Jon Beesley gave a progress report on the development of the F-35 to the Naval Aviation Foundation Association of Naval Aviation Pax River Squadron Dec. 9, in the Cedar Point Officers' Club.

Another milestone was reached in the F-35 program when the first CTOL aircraft, AA-1, was hoisted into the air, weighed, and moved from one location in the factory to a new location approximately 100 yards away.

In what seems a never ending trend, another new military aircraft may see fewer numbers produced due to rising costs. While Australia has indicated that it would purchase 100 new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft to replace its F/A-18 and F-111 jets, higher prices may force the Australian government to reduce thier order by up to half.

The Pentagon, seeking to curb expenses in the $256 billion Joint Strike Fighter program, plans to make Pratt & Whitney the sole supplier of engines for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet by ending a competing engine development program.

With the installation of horizontal tails on the first F-35, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) team has completed assembly of the aircraft's major structural components. The next milestone in the aircraft's march to first flight is engine installation, planned for early 2006.

Flight test engine #1 will be delivered to Lockheed Martin's plant in Ft. Worth later this month where it will be installed into the first flight test F-35 airframe.

The Royal Australian Air Force's decision to go ahead with buying the F-35 might be surprising, but not when one looks at what the alternatives had been. The Australians had been considering ten options for the future of the RAAF.