The Air Force intends to resume flying F-35As Wednesday after temporarily suspending operations due to a fire, according to a service spokeswoman.
An F-35A suffered a “significant fire” Monday in the back of the jet before liftoff as it was preparing to conduct a continuation training mission at Eglin AFB, Fla. Air Force spokeswoman Lt. Hope Cronin said Tuesday the aircraft has been towed to the hangar for its safety investigation board and that the board is collecting time sensitive information and preserving evidence.
“At no point have we considered this necessarily a grounding of our fleet,” Cronin said.
Cronin said F-35Bs and F-35Cs were not flying Tuesday due to bad weather in Florida. Neither prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] nor the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) responded to requests for comment. The F-35A is the Air Force’s conventional variant, the F-35B is the Marine Corps’ short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) variant while the F-35C is the Navy’s carrier variant.
The F-35 will make its debut at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in the United Kingdom July 11-13. It will also display at the Farnborough International Air Show July 14-20. The F-35 is developed by Lockheed Martin with subcontractors BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman [NOC].