92
F-35 LIGHTNING II Te s t review
Following installation of its shaft-driven
Lift-Fan engine in late December 2000,
the X-35B STOVL version began hover-pit
trials in February 2001, and by June it was
being readied for flight trials with its Lift-
Fan installed. Its first brief vertical take-
off and landing took place on June 23, 2001,
with a sustained hover being accomplished
the next day, and a first vertical landing
from wing-borne flight on July 16.
The Department of Defense announced
on October 26, 2001, that the X-35 had
won and that Lockheed Martin would be
awarded the $18bn contract for SDD.
This involved a move to production-
representative aircraft. It initially included
13 fully instrumented aircraft: five CTOL
F-35As, five STOVL F-35Bs and three
CV F-35Cs, plus static test airframes.
Production of the first aircraft (F-35A
AA-1) began in 2004, with final assembly
commencing in May 2005. The aircraft
rolled off the production line at Fort Worth
on February 19, 2006, and was formally
unveiled on July 7 that year, when the thenUSAF Chief of Staff Gen Michael Moseley
officially named it as the Lightning II.
But delays were already creeping into
the programme and Lockheed Martin was
unable to meet its October maiden flight
date. AA-1 finally took to the air for the
first time on December 15, 2006, with chief
test pilot Jon Beesley at the controls.
Meanwhile, work on the first F-35B (BF-
01) had begun in September 2005, with
the aircraft making its inaugural flight
on June 11, 2008. Back in 2003, concerns
had already emerged over weight issues
with the F-35B as a result of its additional
Lift-Fan in the mid-fuselage. A design
review was initiated to strip out at least
2,700lb (1,225kg) of excess weight from
the structure, weapons bays, and some
‘customer desirables’ on the STOVL version.
This slowed the progress of the SDD
F-35Bs dramatically and meant that the
design faced a compromise. Internal
weapons carriage for the F-35B was
scaled back to a pair of 1,000lb stores
plus two AMRAAMs, compared to theABOVE: The SDD eet attached to the
461st Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB,
comprising F-35As AF-01 through AF-04 plus
two Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) aircraft
(AF-06/07) that were diverted from the
training unit at Eglin to boost the test e ort.
Lockheed Martin/Paul Weatherman
BELOW: The rst F-35 Lightning II, AA-1,
took to the air for the rst time on December
15, 2006, with Jon Beesley at the controls.
Lockheed Martin