On June 6, 2010, the first test flight of the first prototype of the Lockheed Martin F-35C Lightning II carrier-based fighter took place. The flight duration was 57 minutes. According to company representatives, the first F-35C aircraft will enter the US Navy in 2016.
On June 10, 2010, Colonel of the USMC Matt Kelly, on an F-35B prototype aircraft (tail number BF-2), reached a speed corresponding to the number M = 1, 07 at an altitude of 9150 m. This was the 30th flight of this aircraft.
The BF-2 was the third F-35 prototype to break the sound barrier. The first two aircraft (AA-1 and AF-1) were examples of the Air Force ground fighter with conventional takeoff and landing.
By June 13, 2010, all F-35 aircraft had completed 111 test flights instead of the planned 103 flights.
The Pratt-Whitney company in May 2010 completed the flight test program for the F135-PW-100 engine and began production of the first batch of serial turbofan engines of this type.
According to Bennett Croswell, vice president of programs F119 and F135 of Pratt-Whitney, 29 F135-PW-100 engines have been manufactured, including 11 for bench tests and 18 for flight tests. By now, the engines have already run about 18,000 hours.
Nevertheless, according to the US Department of Defense, the fighter program is behind schedule by at least two years.
Despite the strong support of the F-35 program by the US state structures, there is a tendency of a gradual withdrawal from it by a number of countries that were previously unambiguously focused on re-equipping their air forces with these fighters. Thus, the Dutch parliament voted in May 2010 to refuse to participate in the F-35 fighter development program, as well as to cancel the order for the purchase of 85 aircraft of this type. In total, this country has invested about $ 800 million in the development and testing of JSF fighters. At the same time, according to F. Van Hovell, a representative of the the government, which was to take up its duties after the elections this summer.
