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More than a year ago, the US Air Force took on
the unique task of taking two wrecked aircraft
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and Frankensteining them together into one
operational F-35A Lightning II.
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Now, after a whole lot of weird science, it’s
alive.
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In late 2023, the F-35 Joint Program Office
assembled a dream team consisting of the
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388th fighter wing.
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The Ogden Air Logistics Complex and Lockheed
Martin.
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The mission rebuild an AF 211 that lost its
nose cone in 2021 using the front end of an
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F-35 that suffered a severe engine fire in 2014.
The Endeavor was affectionately called the
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Frankenberg Project.
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Scott Taylor, a lead mechanical engineer at
Lockheed Martin,
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said his team was already looking into
feasibility since it had already pulled off a
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restoration project on an F-22.
With significant damage,
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but this was the first time trying something
like this with an F-35.
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All of the aircraft sections can be demated and
remated theoretically,
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but it’s just never been done before, Taylor
told the Defense Visual Information
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Distribution Service.
This is the first F-35 Frankenburg to date.
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This is history.
The work involved reinstalling landing gear,
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rewiring the aircraft, rebuilding the cockpit,
and installing several components that don’t
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often pop up in flight line maintenance shops.
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It completing several tests that had never
occurred at the field level,
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resulting in valuable updates to the technical
data used by all F-35 maintainers.
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On top of all that new proficiency, the project
is estimated to have cost under $6 million way
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less than the typical 80 million shelled out
for a new F-35A.
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After completing a successful functional flight,
the Franken bird is off to Texas for final
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certifications before returning to service.
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I’m Ben Munson, and this is manufacturing now.