FORT WORTH, Texas, April 8 (UPI) -- U.S. defense company Lockheed Martin reached a milestone for its F-35 Lightning II aircraft program following the program's first sensors equipped test flight.
Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday the successful test flight from the company's Fort Worth, Texas facility with an F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft fully integrated with a next-generation mission systems sensor package.
The test flight with the avionics technologies, developed by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, VSI, Honeywell, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, is the first mission systems-equipped flight marking a milestone for the F-35 program.
"The F-35's next-generation sensor suite enables a new capability for multi role aircraft, collecting vast amounts of data and fusing the information into a single, highly comprehensible display that will enable the pilot to make faster and more effective tactical decisions," Eric Branyan, Lockheed Martin F-35 deputy program manager, said in a statement.
