Tests progressing on future Eglin F-35s

By the time F-35s arrive at Eglin Air Force Base in a couple of years, the Air Force’s next generation fighter-bomber will have gone through a test and evaluation regimen unlike any other.

Doug Pearson, vice president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.’s F-35 JSF Integrated Test Force, told a group of engineers and pilots recently that the warplane has the most complex system of test and evaluation instruments ever put on a fighter.

Data collected by the equipment, coupled with extensive computer modeling, means the test force can forego some types of testing to develop the airplane faster.

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