JSF makes landmark STOVL test flight

[Woodmonkey]

The Marine Corps variant of the Joint Strike Fighter marked a landmark achievement Wednesday as the short take-off vertical landing fighter jet made its initial test flight near Fort Worth, Texas.

Briton Graham Tomlinson, a former Royal Air Force pilot now employed by BAE Systems, took the STOVL to the skies shortly after 10 a.m., according to a Lockheed Martin statement.

“We're absolutely convinced that this aircraft is going to only further enhance what is a tremendous asymmetric advantage that we hold in terms of controlling the air, taking advantage of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, multi-sensor capabilities, and the ability, if need be, to drop a bomb in a precision strike,” Gen. James Conway, Marine Corps commandant, said in the statement.

All the initial flights are made in conventional flight mode, while the STOVL flight mode testing will begin in the early part of 2009.

The F-35B became the second Joint Strike Fighter to enter flight testing. It was preceded by the conventional takeoff and landing F-35A, which first flew in December 2006 and has completed 43 flights, Lockheed Martin said.

Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 Lightning II for the U.S. and eight partner nations with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

The U.S. is expected to spend roughly $1 trillion to field 2,458 Joint Striker Fighters across the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, according to the Government Accountability Office.

The Source