Lockheed Martin is to convert a Boeing 737-300 into a flying avionics testbed for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter test programme. The aircraft will be fitted with an aerodynamically neutral canard mounted on the forward fuselage to replicate the relative positions of the wing-mounted antennas and the sensors for the JSF's electro-optical distributed aperture system to the Northrop Grumman AESA nose-mounted radar. The CATBird, which is being modified for the role in Mojave, California close to Lockheed Martin's Palmdale site, is also expected to be fitted with theF-35's electro-optical targeting system. The aircraft will be operated as part of the F-35 Integrated Test Force and will make its first flight with the mission systems aboard in May 2005. The modified 737, which conceptually resembles the 757-based F/A-22 avionics flying testbed, is supplemented by the current CATBird, a Northrop Grumman owned BAC One-Eleven flying testbed.
Source: Flight International
