SAMLESBURY, England, April 7 (UPI) -- The pilot ejection system for F-35 aircraft has been certified as ready for flight following testing by a British industry team led by BAE Systems UK.
The system will be used on all variants of the more than 3,000 F-35 Lightning II aircraft slated to be produced.
"Achieving this certification marks the culmination of several years' hard work across an integrated team and across a range of functions," said Chris Garside, BAE Systems' chief engineer on the F-35 program. "It's a major achievement.
"The system has consistently performed as expected through a progressive series of tests. The escape system standard that underwent the final tests is now being implemented into the production aircraft."
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BAE Systems is a prime sub contractor to Lockheed Martin of the United States on the F-35 program, responsible for the design and delivery of the aft fuselage and empennage for each F-35 variant, as well as key areas of the vehicle and weapon systems, in particular the fuel system, crew escape, life support system and prognostics health management integration.
BAE said the ejection system had been tested to its limits, with the ejection seat and mannequin launched at speeds of more than 600 mph down a test track.
"Ejecting from an aircraft like F-35 typically takes no more than three seconds from the time the ejection handle is pulled to the pilot being on a parachute," BAE Systems' Test Manager Rick Whittaker said. "You can imagine how quickly everything happens. Incredibly, during the tests up to 900,000 measurements were recorded every second."
