First F-35 Centre Fuselage Delivered To Northrop Grumman

Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has delivered its first F-35 Lightning II centre fuselage to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin at a ceremony held at TAI's facilities in Ankara, Turkey yesterday.

The centre fuselage will be installed into a U S Air Force aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s facilities in Fort Worth, Texas.

“Delivery of the first F-35 center fuselage is a major step by TAI to demonstrate its commitment to adding value to the program,” said Muharrem Dortkasli,  president and chief executive officer, TAI. “TAI invested in brand new, state-of-the-art facilities, machinery, equipment and tooling to manufacture the most advanced and complex assembly of the F-35, Fifth-generation fighter aircraft. It is now time to begin delivering world-class TAI center fuselages to the final production line at an increasing rate every year."

"TAI will continue utilizing its capability and capacity throughout the life of the programme until 2040s,” Dortkasli added.

“Turkish Aerospace Industries has played an integral part in the development and production of the F-35 for more than a decade,” said Steve O’Bryan, vice president of F-35 Programme Integration and Business Development for Lockheed Martin. “The delivery of the first centre fuselage today marks a key milestone for the program and TAI.”

Once the programme reaches full rate production, TAI will support F-35 final assembly lines in the United States and Italy by shipping one centre fuselage every 10 days. TAI’s centre fuselages will be integrated into the Turkish F-35 aircraft as well as other participating nations’ aircraft.

In addition to building centre fuselages as a Northrop Grumman subcontractor, TAI is the single source for centre fuselage metallic assemblies for F-35A, selected composite components for all F-35 variants, and is one of two sources for composite air inlet ducts for F-35A, and air-to-ground alternate mission pylons for all F-35 variants.