Thursday, November 15, 2012

F-35 program status update through Nov. 2nd

This blog posted the program status for F-35 flight testing through mid-October (19th) a few days ago.  Here's an update that carries it through November 2nd.

Cumulative flight test activity totals for 2012 as of Nov. 2, are provided below:

o F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) jets have flown 437 times.
o F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft have completed 352 flights.
o F-35C carrier variant (CV) jets have flown 222 times.

Since December 2006, F-35s have flown 3,253 times and accrued more than 5,117 cumulative flight hours. This total includes 91 flights from the original test aircraft, AA-1; 2,439 SDD test flights; and 723 production-model flights.

On October 4, BF-17 ferried to PAX and completed its first SDD flight on November 1.

On October 11, the CV variant achieved 400 flights.

On October 16, an F-35A CTOL aircraft completed the first in-flight weapons release of a 2,000 pound GBU-31 BLU-109 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM).

On October 19, BK-2 and BF-16 ferried to Eglin AFB.

On October 19, an F-35A test aircraft completed the first aerial weapon release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM (Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile) from a CTOL.

AF-4 completed the first F-35 Spin Recovery Chute taxi deployment on October 20, the first F-35 flight with the SRC on October 24, and the first High AoA mission at 26 and 30 degrees AoA on October 29.

On October 17, AF-7 performed the first in-flight SINCGARS (Single Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System) test on an F-35.

During the month of October, two days of record 19 F-35 flights were completed – October 19 and October 23.

On October 25, the SDD Fleet achieved 1000 flights.

On October 23, the entire F-35 Fleet (AA-1, SDD, and LRIP) achieved 5000 hours.

On November 2, Eglin completed their 500th sortie.

@Graff48099375

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