Post by corsair67 on Dec 18, 2006 13:43:48 GMT 12
From The Australian.
Troubled stealth fighter tackles first test flight
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
December 18, 2006.
IT flies. The most expensive military project in history - the new stealth joint strike fighter - took to the skies in its first test flight at the weekend in Texas.
Cost overruns and disputes between the US and it partners in the $US350 billion ($448 billion) project -- including Australia -- were all but forgotten when the F-35 Lightning 2 Joint Strike Fighter roared to life.
The jet flew for about 40 minutes with its landing gear down the entire flight, reaching a speed of about 418km/h.
"The primary objective of a first flight is to take off, make sure the systems work, and then come back safely," said test pilot Jon Beesley. "We did those, and that's really the majority of the mission right there."
The test flight had called for a brief lowering and raising of the landing gear but Lockheed Martin said a minor technical hitch with a sensor meant the plane was landed without testing it.
Security was tight at Lockheed's facility in Fort Worth, Texas. But as word spread of the test flight, hundreds of cars were parked on the side of a road near the runway, with many people holding video cameras in the hope of catching a glimpse of the jet.
Lockheed employees gathered near the runway applauded, and some were moved to tears as the grey jet took off, said some Lockheed officials, who reported receiving phone calls from other countries as soon as news spread of the flight.
"I would call this the flight that was heard round the world," said Tom Burbage, executive vice president for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general manager for the JSF program.
Last week Australia, which is committing about $12 billion to buy up to 100 fighter jets, signed up to the next phase of the program and will begin negotiating final price and delivery dates for the planes -- not expected until at least 2011.
The Pentagon is budgeting for about 2500 of the fighters.
Australia and Britain, which is spending about $25 billion on the jets, both threatened this year to pull out of the project if the US refused to transfer the secrets of the plane's radar avoidance stealth technology.
Canberra won assurances earlier this year and decided to sign on but Britain was still talking about pulling out of the JSF last week, until verbal assurances from the Pentagon had London sign on to the next phase of the JSF development.
Troubled stealth fighter tackles first test flight
Geoff Elliott, Washington correspondent
December 18, 2006.
IT flies. The most expensive military project in history - the new stealth joint strike fighter - took to the skies in its first test flight at the weekend in Texas.
Cost overruns and disputes between the US and it partners in the $US350 billion ($448 billion) project -- including Australia -- were all but forgotten when the F-35 Lightning 2 Joint Strike Fighter roared to life.
The jet flew for about 40 minutes with its landing gear down the entire flight, reaching a speed of about 418km/h.
"The primary objective of a first flight is to take off, make sure the systems work, and then come back safely," said test pilot Jon Beesley. "We did those, and that's really the majority of the mission right there."
The test flight had called for a brief lowering and raising of the landing gear but Lockheed Martin said a minor technical hitch with a sensor meant the plane was landed without testing it.
Security was tight at Lockheed's facility in Fort Worth, Texas. But as word spread of the test flight, hundreds of cars were parked on the side of a road near the runway, with many people holding video cameras in the hope of catching a glimpse of the jet.
Lockheed employees gathered near the runway applauded, and some were moved to tears as the grey jet took off, said some Lockheed officials, who reported receiving phone calls from other countries as soon as news spread of the flight.
"I would call this the flight that was heard round the world," said Tom Burbage, executive vice president for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and general manager for the JSF program.
Last week Australia, which is committing about $12 billion to buy up to 100 fighter jets, signed up to the next phase of the program and will begin negotiating final price and delivery dates for the planes -- not expected until at least 2011.
The Pentagon is budgeting for about 2500 of the fighters.
Australia and Britain, which is spending about $25 billion on the jets, both threatened this year to pull out of the project if the US refused to transfer the secrets of the plane's radar avoidance stealth technology.
Canberra won assurances earlier this year and decided to sign on but Britain was still talking about pulling out of the JSF last week, until verbal assurances from the Pentagon had London sign on to the next phase of the JSF development.
