Boeing, Lockheed Hit JSF Milestones
Boeing Co.’s Joint Strike Fighter X-32B on Sunday successfully made the transition from normal flight to a jetborne hover. Meanwhile, Lockheed Martin Corp., which is competing with Boeing for the JSF contract, announced that its X-35B had made two vertical takeoffs and landings, along with 35-second hovers.
Boeing spokesman Chick Ramey demurred from comparing the programs directly.
“The most challenging part of the X-32B is the transition between conventional and STOVL--short takeoff and vertical landing--flight,” said Ramey with Boeing’s Aircraft and Missiles Group.
“I think each team is coming at it from the opposite direction,” said Lockheed spokesman John Kent in Palmdale, where both companies have plants that assembled their demonstrators. “But we’re both bound by the same program requirements, so we’re obviously working to that.”
The Defense Department is expected to make a decision in October. The JSF contract will be worth more than $200 billion, with production of an anticipated 3,000 fighters to begin in 2007.
The JSF--an all-in-one fighter for use by the U.S. Navy, Air Force and Marines, as well as Britain’s Royal Navy--will replace a range of U.S. and British warplanes including the Harrier, A-10 Wart Hog, F-14 Tomcat, F-16 Fighting Falcon and F/A-18 Hornet.
The Harrier warplane can hover and land vertically, but the JSF successor will be supersonic with radar-baffling stealth technology--next-generation capabilities, Ramey said.
Boeing’s concept demonstrator “B plane” made the shift from conventional to hover flight in four flights Sunday at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland. It hovered for a total of about eight minutes--the longest interval was two minutes and 42 seconds, Ramey said. The plane made five flights Sunday, bringing its total to 47.
Boeing test pilot Dennis O’Donoghue successfully moved the X32-B from a flying position to a steady hover 200 feet above the ground on the plane’s 44th flight, Ramey said. He then put it through three more hovers.
On its 45th flight, the plane hovered at 200 feet, descended to 150 feet and then pressed back up to 200 feet. On its 47th flight, it made a 360-degree turn, among other maneuvers. The plane is expected to try its first vertical landing within days, Ramey said in Seattle.
Last fall, both companies tested another version of the JSF, with conventional takeoff and landing capabilities.
Boeing’s X-32A--with both conventional and aircraft-carrier takeoff and landing capabilities--made its first flight in September and completed its flight test program Feb. 3.
Lockheed’s X-35A made its first flight in October and completed testing Nov. 22. It was then modified into its X-35B phase, which uses a unique shaft-driven lift fan, Kent said.
The Lockheed B plane began testing this weekend in Palmdale. The plane made two brief hovers Saturday, and Sunday made two vertical takeoffs and landings as well as “sustained altitude” flying, or hovering for about 35 seconds, spokesman Kent said.
Lockheed’s X-35C, designed specifically for aircraft-carrier operations, made its first flight in December and completed testing March 10 at Patuxent River.
