Boeing and Lockheed Martin are close to "cutting metal" for their respective Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) concept-demonstrator aircraft. So far, Boeing has produced trial sections of thermoplastic-composite wing skin, while Lockheed Martin has received a composite inlet-duct test article produced by subcontractor Alliant Techsystems.
The wing lay-up mandrel is "...the first real piece of hardware" produced for Boeing's X-32 concept-demonstrators, says deputy programme manager Fred May. Construction of tooling for the rival X-35 is "well under way" at Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, says programme manager Dave Wheaton.
Two X-35s will be assembled by the Skunk Works in Palmdale, California. May says that Boeing has yet to decide whether final-assembly of its two X-32s will occur in Seattle or the former McDonnell Douglas (MDC) military-aircraft plant in St Louis, Missouri.
May reveals that MDC conducted an independent assessment of Boeing's JSF. "The aircraft changed very little," he says, although MDC's flight-controls experience resulted in design improvements.
Both JSF teams are conducting key propulsion-system component tests on their short-take-off/vertical-landing variants. May says that Boeing has windtunnel-tested a revised inlet, while model tests of the direct-lift module and attitude-control system are "coming along" at Rolls-Royce. Testing of a small-scale powered model will provide final confirmation of the "vertical aerodynamics" of the X-32, he says.
Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, is conducting inlet/forebody windtunnel tests, while Allison Engine has completed model testing of the exhaust nozzle for the X-35's shaft-driven lift-fan. Lift-fan clutch testing at BFGoodrich "...looks better than expected," says Wheaton, with "three to four times" the life needed for flight-testing.
Source: Flight International
