20 Apr 2007
Speech by Tom Fillingham, Managing Director, F-35 Lightning II
F-35 Lightning II Assembly Facility
Samlesbury, Lancashire
03 April 2007
Ladies, Gentlemen and Distinguished Guests, welcome to F-35 Lightning II Assembly Facility.
Today is a significant milestone for the F-35 programme and for the BAE Systems’ team.
I am delighted that today we will formally handover the first short take off and vertical landing variant aft fuselage – known as BF-1 - to our customer Lockheed Martin.
The F-35 Lighting II programme is the world’s largest defence programme on which BAE Systems is proud to be a key partner.
F-35 will be the world’s most advanced combat aircraft and the first stealthy, supersonic, multi-role fighter. BAE Systems brings key capabilities to the programme including digital design, lean manufacturing and of course our rich STOVL heritage from the Harrier programme.
BF-1 is the first of seven STOVL aft fuselages and empennages that we will deliver as part of the SDD programme and is delivered at a time when assembly is ramping up to meet the SDD schedule. As I speak today we have five STOVL aircraft in build and will soon be starting the assembly of the first production version of the Conventional Take Off and Landing variant.
From here on in the production rates will continue to ramp-up until we reach a rate of 1 a day – a pace never before seen in the military aircraft industry.
And therefore, today's event is a significant milestone not just for the F-35 Lightning II programme, but also for our Samlesbury site. We have exciting and ambitious development plans for Samlesbury, which include the expansion of our production facilities for the F-35 programme. Such expansion is essential if we are to meet the demanding future delivery schedule.
Before I formally handover the BF-1 aft fuselage and ask Bobby Williams from Lockheed Martin to say a few words, I would like to take a few minutes to recognise the achievements the team has made along the journey of BF-1.
As the video tried to capture – the production of BF-1 has been a real team effort and I would like to thank everyone who has been involved in achieving this milestone. Unfortunately it was not possible to gather the entire team here today due to the limited space – which is a reflection of the numbers of people who have played a role in this achievement. We do have representatives from each team here with us today and you should all feel extremely proud of everything you have achieved.
The journey of BF-1 aft fuselage started in 2005 with the initial design releases of the aircraft. Teams across three Military Air Solutions sites – Brough, Samlesbury and Woodford - and two external sites at Belfast and Bamber Bridge – have engineered this complex product. In fact some 300 design, stress and manufacturing engineers have worked on the aft fuselage across the three variants of the F-35.
The team had some real challenges along the way including the much publicised weight pressures. Along with our team mates at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, our team played an integral role in delivering key weight saving initiatives. The aft is now within 2% of its weight targets and this is a credit to the work the team has done to engineer weight out of every aspect of design, manufacture and assembly.
More than 2500 parts make up the BF-1 aft fuselage, which are being manufactured by a combination of our internal teams and around 60 external suppliers from throughout the North West and beyond. The achievement of getting the right parts in the right place at the right time should not be underestimated.
Internally, the Integrated Operations team has played an integral role in the production of the aft fuselage. Teams from right across the business - carbon fibre, super plastic forming/diffusion bonding, machining and treatments - have supported the F-35 programme and helped us to achieve today’s milestone.
And although today we are handing over the aft fuselage for BF-1, let’s not forget the exceptional progress being made on the vertical and horizontal tails (members of the team here today). The vertical tails will be completed in May and the horizontal tails in June ready for delivery to our customer Lockheed Martin. Both sets of tails are currently making great progress through assembly. This again is a result of the hard work and dedication of the wider teams who have been involved in the design, engineering and manufacture of the empennage.
Here in assembly, where all those individual elements literally come together as one product, the team have embodied the learning from AA-1 and continued develop the way the aft fuselage and empennage are assembled – with fantastic results. Just one example – the upper aft surface has over 1300 holes in it. The skin, which is manufactured and drilled independently from the structure, was a perfect fit both in terms of inner mould line and hole alignment when the two parts of the aft came together. This is thanks to the ‘digital thread’ used on the F-35 programme whereby the design, manufacture, inspection and product validation teams all work to the same digital model.
This digital thread technology was pioneered by BAE Systems and is used across the F-35 programme partners. On the F-35 programme we have taken this technology to the next step and have design, engineering, manufacture and assembly approaches that go beyond that used on other production aircraft.
This digital thread technology and our rich STOVL heritage are just two of the key capabilities we bring to the F-35 team. However, it’s our people who are the real key to our success. Their expertise, experience and sheer hard work are the real reason why BAE Systems continues to deliver on the F-35 programme.
And so, on behalf of the whole team, I am delighted to hand-over the first STOVL aft fuselage – the fruition of this team’s hard work and dedication.
Bobby, before I ask you to say a few words on behalf of Lockheed Martin, let’s take a moment to get a photograph of this milestone event.
Closing Remarks
Bobby – thank you for your kind words and thank you again for taking the time out of your busy schedule to join us in celebrating this milestone.
As I mentioned earlier, today is all about recognising the achievement of this team in completing the first STOVL aft fuselage and handing it over to our customer and I want to thank you all again for everything you have done to make this happen.
But the hard work doesn’t stop there! Our focus will quickly turn to our next major deliveries – the vertical and horizontal tails in the coming months and from there to the further aft fuselage and empennage deliveries as we progress through this System Development and Demonstration phase of the programme.
Thank you again to the team and thank you to everyone who has taken the time to mark this key customer delivery with us today.
