Pentagon Grounds Marine Corps F-35B variant After Incident

Pentagon Grounds Marine Corps Model of F-35 Fighter Jet (excerpt)

WASHINGTON --- The U.S. Navy and Pentagon on Friday grounded the Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet That incident occurred Effective year falling on a training flight at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida on Wednesday. The Pentagon's F-35 program Said office the grounding affected all 25 F-35B model jets, while flights of the Air Force's A-model and the Navy's C-model Were unaffected. Ground operations of the B-model planes continued, it said. program The office ordered the temporary suspension it of flight operations Effective associated with a line drive the B-model's exhaust system failed Prior to takeoff. The pilot aborted the takeoff without incident and cleared the runway, the program office Said in a statement. There Were No injuries to the pilot or ground crew. The incident cam just days after the Pentagon's director of testing and assessment released year 18-page report detailing year array of problems Which he Said underscored the "lack of maturity" of the $ 396 one billion fighter programs. The report and Friday's grounding of the B-model highlighted the continued growing pains of the ambitious Lockheed fighter program, Which Began in 2001 and has-beens Restructured three times in recent years. The grounding affected F-35B models, Which can take off from short runways and land vertically like a helicopter, at a Maryland naval air station, the Florida air base, Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, and Lockheed's F-35 production facility in Fort Worth, Texas. "Implementing a precautionary suspension of flight operations is a pruden

t response Until F-35B engineering, technical and system safety teams fully Understand the causes of the failure, "Said Joe DellaVedova, spokesman for the Pentagon's F-35 program office. "Safety of pilots and ground crew is the top priority of the program." in The fuel line issue Enables movement actuator for the exhaust system associated with the B-model's engine. Instead of traditional hydraulic fluid, it INSTEAD uses fuel as the operating fluid to Reduce Weight. (End of excerpt) Click here for the full story, on the Chicago Tribune website.

January 21, 2013 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Chicago Tribune, published January 19, 2013)