Lockheed Martin rolled out the first weight-optimized F-35A test aircraft from its assembly plant at Fort Worth, Tex., on Dec. 19, the company said in a release. The new F-35A, designated AF-1, is “at its core, the same aircraft that will enter operational service with the Air Force and international customers,” said Dan Crowley, Lockheed’s F-35 program general manager. Unlike AA-1, the first F-35A test aircraft, AF-1 is structurally identical to the F-35s that will enter Air Force service beginning in 2010. While AA-1 has a production-representative external shape and internal systems, its internal structure was designed before a 2004 weight-savings initiative that resulted in structural revisions to all three variants of the F-35. AF-1 also incorporates evolutionary improvements and updates that have resulted from AA-1 flight tests to date, said Tom Burbage, Lockheed’s general manager of F-35 program integration. AA-1 has completed 69 flights, according to the company. AF-1 is also significant since it was the first F-35 built at the full-rate production pace of 50 inches per hour on Lockheed’s moving assembly line, the company said. The rollout of AF-1 came two days after the completion of AG-1, a full-scale non-flying, static F-35A test article that will be used in ground tests
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…