... maybe later this year, says Adm David Venlet, F-35 program executive officer, who briefed reporters this morning at Joint Strike Fighter headquarters on the 6th floor of a a typically non-descript office building in Crystal City.After dispensing with questions about cost overruns, schedule delays and technical problems (you know, the usual), I asked Venlet about the air show possibilities.
I know the flight test jets are spoken-for through at least 2016, but perhaps the first two low-rate initial production jets about to be delivered to the US Air Force could be spared for an air show appearance.
Thinking the Paris Air Show was out of the question, I asked if the LRIP jets might be dispatched to the Dubai Air Show in November or to Farnborough in July 2012.
Venlet's response: Maybe.
(Apologies for the lack of a proper quote. I agreed to delete my recording after Venlet surprised me by walking us into the JSF "war room" as we chatted. I was using my flip-cam as an audio recorder, thereby breaking about a dozen security rules as soon as I stepped inside the F-35's visually-sensitive "war room". For details about the room's contents, I can firmly deny the vicious rumors about the presence of a dartboard adorned with a picture of an F/A-18E piloted by Bill Sweetman.)
Anyway, Venlet said the production jets would be at the disposal of the chief of staff of the air force, Gen Norton Schwartz. If he sees fit to deploy the F-35As to an air show, that's his call, Venlet says.
Let's start the wagering, shall we? The bets are on Dubai, Singapore or Farnborough.
(Photo of a STOVL-model F-35B flight test aircraft courtesy of Lockheed Martin.)
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