- The Air Pressure mentioned it is embarking on a “Franken-bird” challenge to salvage two broken F-35s.
- The plan is to match components from the 2 fighters to create one totally operational F-35.
- The challenge is a primary within the F-35 program, with consultants from Lockheed Martin known as in to help.
The US Air Pressure on Thursday mentioned its engineers in Utah are attempting to revive two broken F-35s by rebuilding them into one totally operational stealth fighter.
Whereas army engineers have tried comparable restorations with different plane, the challenge to create what upkeep consultants known as the “Franken-bird” is the primary amongst F-35s, the Air Pressure mentioned in a press release.
To assemble the Franken-bird — an F-35A Lightning II — the Air Pressure mentioned it is put collectively a “dream staff” of consultants from Lockheed Martin, the F-35 Joint Program Workplace, the 388th Fighter Wing, and the Ogden Air Logistics Complicated.
One of many jets they’re engaged on noticed its touchdown gear collapse in June 2020, whereas the opposite F-35 suffered an engine fireplace in 2014.
The plane that caught fireplace is estimated to have sustained $50 million price of injury, with the rear two-thirds of its physique burned, per an Air Pressure report on the time.
Now, the Air Pressure mentioned it is attempting to interchange the broken nostril of the F-35 that was broken in 2020 with components from the jet that caught fireplace.
“The entire plane sections will be de-mated and re-mated theoretically, nevertheless it’s simply by no means been carried out earlier than,” mentioned Scott Taylor, Lockheed Martin lead mechanical engineer, within the assertion. “That is the primary F-35 ‘Franken-bird’ to this point. That is historical past.”
US Air Pressure
Taylor mentioned the Franken-bird staff has been documenting the challenge meticulously, hoping their work can develop normal restore procedures for different F-35s sooner or later.
The staff is figuring out of Hill Air Pressure Base close to Salt Lake Metropolis, the place engineers needed to design and construct “fully new, distinctive specialised” tools, instruments, and fixtures to carry out the repairs away from the F-35 plant in Texas, the Air Pressure mentioned.
All of this could match right into a Conex cargo container so it may be transported and used for different functions sooner or later, Taylor mentioned.
The challenge is estimated to take round 5 years to finish, even with the staff now being months forward of schedule. It was conceptualized in January 2020, in keeping with Taylor, and is ready to be completed in March 2025, in keeping with the Air Pressure.
A single F-35A prices round $70 million to fabricate, in keeping with Lockheed Martin.
The identify Franken-bird can be a reference to the Franken-tiger fighters that the US Navy purchased within the late 2000s. Northrop Grumman engineers created the Franken-tiger by changing the nostril of an F-5E constructed for Switzerland with the nostril of an F-5F.
