Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B

[unhappycamper]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/22/us-lockheed-fighter-grounding-idUSBRE90L13T20130122

Pentagon, industry seek answers on issue that grounded F-35B
WASHINGTON | Tue Jan 22, 2013 5:38pm EST

(Reuters) - Pentagon and industry officials worked through the weekend to determine what caused the failure of a fuel line on the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's s (LMT.N) F-35 fighter jet that prompted the plane's grounding on Friday.

A spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp (UTX.N) that builds the engines for the jets, said those involved included officials from Stratoflex, a unit of Parker Hannifin Corp (PH.N) that built the fuel line.

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Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office, said on Tuesday it was too soon to say when the short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) model of the radar-evading new jet could return to flight, since the investigation was continuing.

~snip~

The Pentagon's F-35 program office announced the grounding of all 25 F-35B model jets on Friday after a fuel line associated with the B-model's exhaust system failed prior to takeoff during a training flight.



unhappycamper comment: At the moment we have over $6 billion dollars (25 x $250 million dollars) of Lockheed paperweights sitting on the ground while the Lockheed wizards figure out why.