via Courant.com
"We started with about 136 or so possibilities of what we thought this could be. And we are down to about four," he said.So they're walking back earlier, more optimistic estimates...I'm not surprised.
The June fire at Eglin Air Force base in Florida resulted in a grounding of the F-35 fleet and kept the planes from flying at two major air shows this summer. It renewed concerns about the about Pentagon's nearly $400 billion weapons program. The engine is manufactured by East Hartford-headquartered Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp.
Military and company investigators determined the fire occurred as a result of fan blades rubbing against an adjacent seal. Weeks ago, officials at the F-35 program said a solution should be found by the end of September and be moderate in cost, a price that Pratt has agreed to cover.
Hempstall's comments Monday at a Connecticut defense and aerospace conference hinted that a solution could be found in October rather than by the end of this month as initially planned.
"Within the next couple of weeks, we believe we are going to come to a resolution and know what that is," he said. More than 100 of the planes have been built, the vast majority of them production aircraft that will be put into service, he said.
I wonder how this is going to affect the "C" model going out to the boat for testing? I'm willing to bet that the testing will be delayed.
Read the whole story here.
Can't do boat testing with anything other than a healthy engine.
ReplyDeleteIn a related news, welcome to the future where Lockheed has the US fighter jet monopoly and can ask king's ransom for 6th gen fighter jets. If the US can't pay, then it may have to import fighter jets overseas. We are getting there.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.dodbuzz.com/2014/09/19/report-boeing-plans-for-post-fighter-future/
Report: Boeing Plans for Post-Fighter Future
Boeing Co. is planning for an era in which it no longer builds fighter jets, according to a news report.
The world’s largest aerospace company may stop building the F/A-18 in 2017 and the F-15 in 2019 amid a slump in demand for the military aircraft in both the U.S. and abroad, according to an article published Thursday by Doug Cameron and Robert Wall of The Wall Street Journal.
Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing’s defense, space and security unit, in October will begin implementing a business strategy that instead focuses on capturing more of the drone, bomber and trainer market, according to the article. “You have to face reality,” he told the newspaper.
http://online.wsj.com/articles/boeings-st-louis-machinists-eye-voluntary-buyouts-1410554386
Most of Boeing's St. Louis Machinists Eye Voluntary Buyouts
About 1,317 Members Signed Up Before July 31 Deadline
More than half of the Boeing Co. machinists at its St. Louis fighter-jet plant have signed up to take voluntary buyouts, union leaders said on Friday.
LMT pretty much can dictate right now whatever they want to USAF, not sure how much it will really change once F15/F16 lines close down, same goes go for USN and SH line, DoD pretty much screwed itself once it was decided to buy only LO fighters and not even bother anymore with anything else.....you probably couldn't even convince USN to have a fly off like in the good old days, SH/ASH against F35, forget it ever happening.
ReplyDeleteNICO
DeleteIf Boeing's fighter business was around, then you would have a chance to change things around in the next gen.
If Boeing's fighter business is gone, then you repeat the F-35 situation in the next gen as Lockheed is the only fighter jet vendor still in business, or the US is forced to consider importing foreign fighters to introduce a competition.
Seeing that to reduce costs one engine manufacturer was chosen from 2, that same logic is being used to have just one fighter jet manufacturer from 2 or many. How correct this line of thinking is, only future will tell.
ReplyDeleteAnd whatever Boeing does with its fighter business closedown, it will still maintain some R&D and production guys to carry on a skeletal fighter dept. The US market for fighter planes and the US demands from its fighter planes is waaay to varied for just one manufacturer and one plane to monopolize.
Though boeing will hope that initial work on the 6th gen fighter gets started before 2019 or whichever date they plan to shut down. It helps unions, local businesses and the company to know what will happen to a vacant assembly line before the line becomes vacant.
The next 4 years are going to define all that Boeing stands for.