FORT WORTH, Texas–F-35 prime contractor Lockheed Martin [LMT] is expanding the capacity of its one-mile, 25-foot long aircraft assembly line facility here so it is capable of producing roughly 200 jets per year by the end of 2019.
The F-35 program will triple its aircraft production and fielding rate by 2019, producing over 120 planes per year. It will deliver about 43 planes next year (Defense Daily, Sept. 9).
Lockheed Martin is ramping up to a total of 16 mate facilities at full rate production (FRP) from its nine current mate stations, company F-35 Business Development Manager Kevin McCormick said Oct. 28 on a tour of the facility. McCormick said a mate station is where Lockheed Martin brings the four major components of the airframe together: forward, center and aft fuselages and aircraft wings. McCormick said by the time the last of the mate stations is in position by 2018, Lockheed Martin will be at full capacity.
The company manufactures the forward fuselage and wings in Fort Worth while subcontractors BAE Systems makes the aft fuselage in the United Kingdom and Northrop Grumman [NOC] produces the center fuselage in Palmdale, Calif. McCormick said Lockheed Martin utilizes a camera and laser alignment system to get these four major components aligned in a three-dimensional space to minimize steps and gaps. By doing this, the company prevents them from becoming radar reflectors and makes the aircraft low observable.
McCormick said Lockheed Martin is expanding the wing line on the assembly line to make it easier for the company to pick up the aircraft and move it to other mate stations. It currently uses a wing rotation to move the aircraft between mate stations.
Lockheed Martin, at FRP, will have four soft mate areas, where the company will take an aircraft out of the mate fixture with an overhead crane and set on its own three wheels for the first time. At this point, McCormick said, the company will prep for installation of the vertical tails. McCormick said at FRP, Lockheed Martin will have 12 positions for final assembly.
Lockheed Martin spokesman Mark Johnson said Lockheed Martin is doubling its final finishes capacity by building another final finishes building behind its current facility to accommodate the production ramp up. The company said use of the facility will begin summer 2017. Final finishes is where the company takes the aircraft out of final assembly, puts it into one of six preparation bays, and coats some, but not all of, the jet with spray-on material.
From there, Lockheed Martin moves the aircraft into a robotic spray booth where the low observable coating is applied to the outer surface of the aircraft. This is how the aircraft goes from its neon-green, early assembly color to what it looks like in operational capability. McCormick said Lockheed Martin will have 10 total preparation bays at full capacity. McCormick said the process takes 21 total days: 20 days to prep the aircraft and coat it and one day to perform acceptance test facility verification.
Lockheed Martin is installing a time-saving application by expanding the acceptance test facility, McCormick said. This will accommodate the application of a dolly underneath the aircraft that will allow Lockheed Martin to “swing the gear,” reducing the time it takes to elevate the aircraft onto pylons to perform acceptance tests where Lockheed Martin tests the radar signature before it is delivered to the flight line.
F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) spokesman Joe DellaVedova said Tuesday the program believes Lockheed Martin is ready for the ramp up. He said F-35 Program Executive Officer (PEO) Air Force Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan was at the Fort Worth facility last month.
“(The company’s) quality is improving and they are ready to ramp,” DellaVedova said.