F-35 Lightning II Program Surpasses 5,000 Flight Hours

Dec 4, 2012 ASDNews Source : Lockheed Martin Corporation

The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35 Lightning II program surpassed 5,000 flight hours last month. This milestone was reached by the combined F-35 System Development and Demonstration (SDD) aircraft flying at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., and the training aircraft flying at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. All three variants, the F-35A Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL), the Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing (STOVL) and Carrier Variant (CV), participated in achievement of this goal. Since the program’s first flight in December 2006, F-35s have flown 3,464 times. This total includes 91 flights from the original test aircraft, AA-1; 2,510 SDD test flights; and 863 production-model flights.