New U.S. F-35 fighter dubbed "Lightning II"

WASHINGTON, July 7 (Reuters) - The stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighter being developed by the United States and eight other countries is to be named the "Lightning II," in homage to two earlier fighters.


The supersonic F-35 is being built by a team led by Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) at a cost of $276 billion. It is the costliest U.S. weapons program ever.

"The F-35 Lightning II will be the centerpiece of airpower in the 21st century for America and our allies," Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England said in a statement on Friday.


Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed is the prime contractor developing three variants of the single-engine plane.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley announced the name at Lockheed's Fort Worth, Texas plant, saying it represented the fruit of over a hundred years of flight and aerial combat.


The F-35's name echoes that of the sleek World War Two-era Lockheed P-38 Lightning, which scored the most aerial victories of any U.S. fighter in the Pacific. Designed as a high-altitude interceptor, the twin-propellor P-38 was also used for dive bombing, level bombing, ground strafing and photo reconnaissance.

English Electric, which later become BAE Systems (BA.L: Quote, Profile, Research), built a supersonic twin-engined jet in the mid-1950s that was also called Lightning. It could reach speeds of 1,500 miles per hour and remained in service until 1988.

"The F-35 Lightning II will carry on the legacy of two of the greatest and most capable fighter aircraft of all time," said Ralph Heath, president of Lockheed's aeronautics unit.


Britain's BAE Systems and Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC.N: Quote, Profile, Research) are Lockheed's key subcontractors on the F-35 program.


Partner countries on the new fighter are Britain, which has committed $2 billion to the effort, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Australia, Norway, Denmark and Canada.


The United States and its partners last month agreed in principle to a long-term plan for how many fighters they would buy, but they are still working out details of a technology-transfer plan crucial to completion of the deal.


The draft pact includes statements of intent by the non-U.S. countries to buy a total 710 planes. The United States plans to buy 2,443, the first of which is due to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force in 2009.

The F-35 is designed to replace a wide range of existing aircraft, including the AV-8B Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and Britain's Harrier GR.7s. The first F-35 is due to have its inaugural flight later this year.


Link

Not a bad name and no surprise given that it's a Lockheed product. When I worked there we had "Lighting" awards for those who had done something above and beyond.



[edit on 7-7-2006 by Number23]

I like the name...

This was already posted and discussed here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

The name wasn't really a surprise , though, there have been speculations about it for weeks now. Sound good!

Terrible terrible choice for a name.


How does the JSF remotely compare to the Iconic P-38?


P-38 -> Twin engined, long long range heavy fighter/interceptor.

F-35 -> Single engined, light ground attack.

The YF-22 was approprietly named Lightning II because it really did fit the job of the P-38, but they gave it to the F-35? How creative.

Shattered OUT...

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
The YF-22 was approprietly named Lightning II because it really did fit the job of the P-38, but they gave it to the F-35? How creative.

Shattered OUT...

Yeap - its about as creative and original as a xerox



Probably better calling it after the P-47, the thunderbolt - not a great fighter, but a super ground attack aircraft.


Myself, I'd have called it the grey crow, or something similarly uninspiring [to reflect the aircraft of course! ]

[edit on 7-7-2006 by kilcoo316]

Well, the A-10 is the Thunderbolt so they couldn't use that, but as I said on the other thread;

Originally posted by waynos
But how can it be the Lightning II anyway?

One

Two

Three?

Zion, could that have been a pre prepared press statement that got released before the postponement was revealed? Maybe they realised that they miscounted?

Originally posted by waynos
Well, the A-10 is the Thunderbolt so they couldn't use that, but as I said on the other thread;

Whoops!



Aye, just go with clay pigeon then

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies
The YF-22 was approprietly named Lightning II because it really did fit the job of the P-38, but they gave it to the F-35? How creative.

Shattered OUT...

Not a problem, here. I think Raptor is far COOLER than Lightning II.

Sounds like a sequel to me...

Hmm... F-35 Lightning II... it's great until I have to say "II", that's the part where it just doesn't roll off the tongue as well.



I'm just praying that Northrop Grumman wins the next fighter competition (which is probably going to be about 25-35 years from now) so I can see another Hellcat.

Best of the bunch.

Allies used the p-38 in ww2.

Allies will USE the f-35 very soon

why does the f-35 only have one huge thruster the two mini ones looks better it looks kinda stupid in a way





[edit on 8-7-2006 by dabomb]

Because it only has one engine.

Nice paint on the "lightning II" too. Is this paint scheme to be used on operational F-35? And are the F-35 from the different services to have the same common paint scheme?

Howabout 'Thunderchief 2' ?

Or name it after another Century Series Fighter?

Howabout name it after a cancelled project like the XF-103 Thunderwarrior?

Hmm not the best omen - named after 2 very average airplanes:

P-38 was very limited in capability & withdrawn from the European theatre as it couldn't compete

EE Lightning was fast but had very limited endurance - even with the extra fuel tank

Given the 'joint' nature of the project I suppose it was the only sensible choice from the proposed list

Hmmm, I have to disagree there. The P-38 was a superb fighter that the RAF handicapped by buying them without superchargers, the USAF models were uniformly excellent.

The EE Lightning was short ranged, yes. Just like every other Mach 2 fighter of the period. It was not an air superioroty fighter but a short range interceptor and as such it was the fastest climbing Interceptor in the world and the *only* specialised 'pure interceptor' in Western service for many years. Definitely not average.

Its only downfall was its feeble load of two AAM's after the proposed 4 missile arrangement with two on the wingtips was abandoned at the development stage. It was felt that in the circumstances in which it would be used, two missiles would be perfectly adequate. Don't judge the Lightning by the modern day Flanker/Raptor/Typhoon philosophy but more as the ultimate expression of the need to intercept incoming high flying bombers as quickly as possible which also created the Me 163 and Bachem Natter. An advantage of the Lightning for example that just on the power of its Avons it outclimbed the F-104 and Mirage III even when these two types used rocket boosters, leading to the plan to fit the Lightning with DH Spectre rocket boosters under the rear fuselage to be abandoned. The Lightning reigned supreme in this area until the USAF introduced the F-15 in 1974.


Average?

Just wrote along reply agreeing with some of the points you made but countering others but my computer ate it so I'm going to say you're right & I'm wrong.

Too late for retyping

Ok i still accept the name it will be called but i thought 'Thunderchief 2' would be good becouse the F-35 will be used for the same type of missions the F-105 did.

Maybe 'Cutlass 2' could be a good name since there is also a Naval Version

Originally posted by Strangerous
Just wrote along reply agreeing with some of the points you made but countering others but my computer ate it so I'm going to say you're right & I'm wrong.

Too late for retyping

I feel for you strangerous, the same thing has happened to me too many times and its so infuriating, I know.