It was
noted in the last
Newsletter that Graham Tomlinson would be making the first flight in
the F-35B Lightning II. It happened on 11 June at Lockheed Martin's
Fort Worth plant. Afterwards Graham was reported as saying, "That was a
really successful first flight. The aircraft flies brilliantly and just
about lands itself. It is a charming aircraft - fantastic"
Graham, or GT as he is known, joined the RAF in 1971. His
first
operational posting was to fly Harrier GRMk3s in RAF Germany. After a
fifteen year service career Graham joined BAe as a test pilot
eventually becoming Chief Test Pilot at Dunsfold. Graham has been based
at Lockheed Martin Fort Worth since 2002 participating in the design
and development of the STOVL F-35B including working with the flight
simulator.
In the BAES newspaper
'Frontline' Graham
said, "The Harrier was the first and only successful STOVL fast jet so
far, so anything that follows it has the DNA from all those years of
flying experience with the RAF and the RN in the UK, with the US Marine
Corps and other navies around the world.
Joint Strike
Fighter News
On
the Harrier there are some absolute, inviolable 'golden rules' that
have to be followed but that kind of constant vigilance is not needed
on the F-35B. That's been done deliberately so that the pilot can
concentrate on the mission. We have taken full advantage of the latest
technology to build a cocoon of safety around the aircraft so that the
pilot can't make an idiot of himself, and that is a huge bonus."
The first flight did not involve STOVL and was within a
15,000 ft and
300 kn envelope. STOVL will not be explored for about six months. "When
we do press the big STOVL button," said Graham, "all the experience we
have picked up in the simulator over the last six years will pay
dividends." The whole JSF flight test programme for all versions will
utilise fourteen development aircraft flying 5,000 hours. BAES is
responsible for flight testing the STOVL F-35B, Lockheed Martin the
CTOL F-35A and Northrop Grumman the conventional carrier version, the
F-35C.
Graham was "also very
pleased that the combined
international 'Team JSF' has recognised the fact that BAE Systems and
its predecessor companies basically brought STOVL to the world. That's
why we are sitting at the table right now in 'Team JSF'. I keep
thinking, hats off to those long-ago guys (he must mean you, Ralph! -
Ed.) at Kingston and Dunsfold who developed Harrier and got it all
going in the early 1960s."
