Majarkeun

Lockheed Martin F 35 Lightning II

Lockheed Martin F 35 Lightning II

Although not operational yet, the F-35 is already being planned for exports to countries from the United Kingdom to Singapore.

Design...

The F-35 appears to be a smaller, slightly more conventional, one-engine sibling of the sleeker, two-engine F-22 Raptor, and indeed, drew elements from it. The exhaust duct design was inspired by the General Dynamics Model 200, a 1972 VTOL aircraft designed for the Sea Control Ship.

Lockheed teamed with the Yakovlev Design Bureau, developer of the Yakovlev Yak-141 "Freestyle", in the 1990s.

Stealth technology makes the aircraft hard to detect as it approaches short-range tracking radar.

Some improvements over current-generation fighter aircraft are:

• Durable, low-maintenance stealth technology;
• Integrated avionics and sensor fusion that combine information from off- and onboard sensors to increase the pilots situational awareness and improve identification and weapon delivery, and to relay information quickly to other command and control (C2) nodes;
• High speed data networking including IEEE-1394b and Fibre Channel.
• Low life-cycle costs.

Operational History...

Although the F-35 has not experienced any combat as it is not operational yet, it has been thorugh extensive testing and is still under developemnt.

Testing...

• On 19 February 2006, the first F-35A (USAF version) was rolled out in Fort Worth, Texas. The aircraft underwent extensive ground testing at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base in fall 2006. On 15 September 2006 the first engine run of the F135 afterburning turbofan was conducted in an airframe, with the tests completed on 18 September after a static run with full afterburner. The engine runs were the first time that the F-35 was completely functional on its own power systems. On 15 December 2006, the F-35 completed its maiden flight.
• On 3 May 2007, an electrical problem consisting of electrical arcing inside a hydraulic control box forced the aircraft to make an emergency landing. It was grounded until 7 December, when test pilot Jon Beesley flew a 55-minute test flight.

A unique feature of the test program is the use of the so-called Lockheed CATBird avionic testbed, a highly modified Boeing 737-330, inside of which are racks holding all of F-35s avionics, as well as a complete F-35 cockpit.

• On 31 January 2008 at Fort Worth, Texas, Lt. Col. James "Flipper" Kromberg of the U.S. Air Force became the first military service pilot to evaluate the F-35, taking the aircraft through a series of maneuvers on its 26th flight.
• On 12 March 2008, the first F-35A (AA-1) began aerial refueling testing on its 34th test flight.

Specifications...

Available link for download