PREPARATIONS FOR THE 29 May first flight of the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 have moved ahead with delivery of the initial avionics software. Endurance testing of the Pratt & Whitney F119 engine, required for initial flight release, has also been completed successfully.
Fort Worth, Texas-based Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems electronically delivered the first complete operational flight-programme (OFP) to Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems in Marietta, Georgia, where the first F-22 is in final assembly. The OFP consists of 275,000 lines of software controlling the subsystems required for first flight.
P&W, meanwhile, has completed an accelerated mission test (AMT) on the F119, as well as altitude and operability testing. The AMT simulated more than 300 US Air Force combat missions and included over 13h of afterburner operation and more than 12,000 thrust-vectoring transients. Altitude testing measured performance and operability at 15 different flight conditions.
Source: Flight International
