All-composite part reaches JSF

The prototype component was produced at the Turkish Aerospace Industries facility in Ankara

The first major all-composite structural component for the centre fuselage of the F-35 Lightning II has been delivered to US firm Northrop Grumman.

The prototype component, an air inlet duct known as a destructive test article, was produced at the Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) facility in Ankara as part of a five-year, $28 million contract.

The fighter is being developed by a consortium led by Lockheed Martin and including BAE Systems. A variant of the fighter jet will be used on the Royal Navy’s new aircraft carriers.

Northrop Grumman said the delivery of the prototype all-composite air inlet duct reflected the “growing maturity” of TAI’s composite fibre manufacturing processes.

Mark Tucker, vice-president and F-35 programme manager for Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector, said: “TAI has progressed steadily in learning the high-precision manufacturing processes required to produce these parts.”

TAI engineers were trained in composites manufacturing by Northrop Grumman over two years.

Tucker said the destructive test article would be used to validate the quality of TAI’s composite manufacturing processes. Deliveries of production quality inlet ducts are expected by the end of the year.

TAI will produce inlet ducts to support current production of centre fuselages on Northrop Grumman’s F-35 assembly line in Palmdale, California, and then 400 complete centre fuselages in Turkey.

Deliveries of the TAI-produced fuselages are scheduled to begin in 2013. Northrop Grumman is responsible for designing and producing the centre fuselage for all three variants of the F-35.