The JSF Finally Flies...

[unhappycamper]

The JSF Finally Flies...

Our boy Box Cox of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram and his gang of zany JSF watchers caught the plane in the act on Friday...

Lockheed Martin's F-35 Lightning II test airplane finally took off again Friday afternoon for a 55-minute flight, the first since a severe electrical problem forced an emergency landing May 3.

Test flight No. 20 was successful, went according to plan and was trouble free, said Dan Crowley, Lockheed Martin executive vice president and F-35 program general manager.

"We planned it to go an hour," Crowley said. Test pilot Jon Beesley "had the discretion to go a little more or a little less. He got everything done and finished a little bit early."

It was a key milestone in the development of the next generation stealth combat jet, a program estimated to ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers upward of $300 billion even with financial contributions from eight partner nations. Lockheed Martin and government officials have downplayed the effect of the plane's grounding and the problems that caused it, but the issues and rising costs are being closely watched by potential foreign buyers.


Rest of article at: http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003895.html?wh=wh