Media Galleries : F-35 Lightning II

F-35 Program Surpasses 100 pilots

For most of 2012, the ITF operated six F-35As assigned to Edwards—three for flight sciences testing and three for mission systems testing. By the end of 2013, the ITF will be operating three additional F-35s—two F-35Bs and one F-35C, for a total of nine F-35s.

The F-35 Flight Test Update in the Volume 27, Number 3 issue of Code One concluded with the first aerial release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM on 19 October 2012. This tenth installment in the series of flight test updates on the F-35 program covers numerous other weapon releases as well as other achievements of the F-35 Integrated Test Force located at Edwards AFB, California, and at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

Since June 2012, the F-35 Integrated Test Force set new records of 135 System Development and Demonstration, or SDD, flights for 239 SDD flight hours and more than 1,100 test points in August 2012. With training pilot checkouts at Eglin AFB, Florida, and test pilot qualifications at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, fifty-five pilots have flown the F-35 Lightning II as of October 2012.

The F-35 Integrated Test Force, or ITF, at Pax, one of multiple test sites for the F-35 program, is responsible for flight testing the seagoing variants of the F-35, which include the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B variant and the F-35C carrier variant.

Measuring the antenna performance, or pole testing, began at Rome Research Lab eight years ago. The joint Lockheed Martin-F-35 Joint Program Office engineering team realized in the early stages of the F-35 program that a computer simulation could not adequately test the range, isolation, and overall performance of the aircraft’s antennas. And testing the antennas before the program finished building the first production aircraft was crucial.

Through the end of June 2012, the System Development and Demonstration, or SDD, test pilots set new records for most flights in a month – 123 flights in March 2012 – and most test points in a month – 1,118 in June 2012. The F-35 test program had conducted 595 test flights in 2012 and accrued 4,830 test points.

Through 3 March 2012, the F-35 test program had completed 161 flights totaling more than 250 flight hours and had accrued more than 1,100 test points. F-35B test pilots have executed twenty-three vertical landings so far this year. With several more checkout flights completed, thirty-three pilots have now flown the F-35. Twenty-six pilots are flying currently.

BF-2’s flight to the ship brought the 2011 flight total to more than 700, flight hours to more than 1,100, and the vertical landing count beyond 180. By the end of September, F-35B pilots had flown more than 300 short takeoffs in 2011 alone.

Since March 2011, the F-35 program has completed more than 200 additional flights and, as of late June 2011, had surpassed 1,400 flight hours and 1,000 total flights.