14 DAY TRIAL // Officials with Northrop Grumman Corporation announce that engineers from subcontractor Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc. (TAI) were recently able to complete their first center fuselage for the F-35 Lightning II aircraft, the most advanced fighter in the sky today.
The center fuselage section of the aircraft was delivered to representatives from Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin, the main contractors on the aircraft, during a ceremony held in Ankara, the Turkish capital, on December 11.
This component will soon be delivered to a Lockheed Martin installation in Fort Worth, Texas, where it will be integrated into a version of the aircraft developed for the US Air Force (USAF). TAI is one of the international partners involved in the F-35 project.
“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 […]. It is now time to begin delivering world-class TAI center fuselages to the final production line at an increasing rate every year,” said TAI CEO and president, Muharrem Dortkasli.
TAI has been a part of the F-35 Lightning II program for more than a decade.