FORT WORTH, Texas, April 5 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin's test of F-35 Lightning II fighters being developed for the U.S. military and allies logged 199 flights in the first quarter of this year.
Also, the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant logged six times more vertical landings in the first quarter than in all of 2010, Lockheed said.
The test program remains ahead of plan despite the grounding of various test fleet aircraft for up to 15 days as officials investigated the cause of a dual generator/starter failure during a flight March 9.
Lockheed, in a news release detailing first quarter 2011 progress in the F-35 program said:
-- Conventional takeoff and landing F-35A aircraft conducted 82 flights against the plan of 62.
-- STOVL F-35Bs conducted 101 flights against a plan of 62.
-- Carrier variant aircraft accomplished 16 of 18 planned flights.
-- Two production-model aircraft, AF-6 and AF-7, flew for the first time in preparation for delivery to the U.S. Air Force this year. The aircraft flew seven times in the first quarter.
-- The STOVL variant performed 61 vertical landings, compared with 10 last year. BF-1 performed the first touch-and-go maneuver in VL mode this quarter.
-- From the start of flight testing in December 2006 through March 31, 2011, F-35s have flown 753 times, including production-model flights.
The F-35 Lightning II is a fifth-generation fighter, combining advanced stealth with fighter speed and agility, fully fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment.
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.
