Super fighter F-35 Program was on target

The F-35A model AF-7 was delivered to the Air Force at Lockheed's final assembly plant in Fort Worth, Texas, on 5 May.

The flighter was then flown to Edwards Air Force Base, California to to complete an airframe-specific flight test programme.

The hand-over marks the delivery of the first production jet nearly 10 years after Lockheed won the contract to deliver 1,763 F-35As to the US Air Force, plus a total of 640 F-35Bs and F-35Cs for the Marine Corps and navy, respectively.

"Today we begin to fulfil the vision of our government and international customers," said Larry Lawson, Lockheed's F-35 program manager.

Fighter development program JSF has been delayed several years because designed flaws, while funding for projects ongoing to increase up.

This is a aircraft development program which many countries involved, including 9 countries. The delay caused the countries complained constantly and reviewing arms procurement plan.

With this event, the JSF program has achieved important progress, overcome the harsh criticism.

F-35A has entered the first stage of production, currently the 8 of 13 first productions is shipped out. F-35B has passed the critical test phase, F-35C is also ready for first production.

According to the US Air Force plans the first F-35A team will operate in 2017-2018. According to a report by the US Air Force, the end of 2011, 20 first F-35A aircrafts will be produced and delivered for pilot-training.

In parallel with the pilot training, US Air Force will assess the ability of the aircraft. The amendments will be conducted after this review.

The first F-35A aircrafts is the short variant, the information about the surrounding environment, target, weapon interface will be displayed on the dashboard, instead of integrating flying-helmet as the original design.

Complete system of the F-35A will be armed in the second production. Lockheed Martin will manufacture F-35 aircraft with several different blocks, after putting into operation and evaluation. Deficiencies (if any) will be overcome for the next block.

Lockheed Martin said, the perfecting through the different bolcks will give better results and save time, costs rather than trying to improve in the first production.