CATBird up and running

CATBird is the flying testbed for the F-35 avionics and computer systems. It is a modified 737 with canards and an f-35 nose. It flew over the airport I work at and entered the landing pattern for Alliance airport. I admit that I knew nothing about this plane until about 15 minutes ago. It flew over at about 3:30 or so yesterday afternoon. Next time it comes by I'll get the camera out.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by assassini]

[edit on 15-1-2008 by assassini]

The aircraft was modified under contract by BAE Systems Inc. at their facility at the Mojave Spaceport. Work began in December, 2003, and the aircraft began post-modification taxi tests in November, 2006. First flight took place on January 23, 2007 at Mojave. After the initial flight test program conducted at Mojave, on March 2, 2007, the aircraft was ferried to Lockheed's Fort Worth facility for Phase 2 of the modification program, which will install the flight test stations and actual avionics and sensor systems to be tested.

en.wikipedia.org...

article

there is a rew people on ats with more info than this
i hope this helps.
Some more pics would be nice too hope you acn get some
and post.



[edit on 15-1-2008 by Jezza]

CATbird first flew on the day that the F35A went back into the air - its mentioned in the F35 thread (s) - whilst very important didn`t get the same coverage as the return to air of the F35A

Thanks for the info. The airspace above our airport is very congested, so I am used to seeing a wide variety of aircraft, but seeing a 737 with a funky nose and canards was something out of the ordinary.