F-35 cleared to fly

The Pentagon said on Thursday it would resume flights of its F-35 following a week-long precautionary grounding imposed after a crack was found on an engine blade on a test plane in California. No additional cracks were found during inspections of engines on the remaining 50 planes in the Pentagon's fleet, or any spare engines. The conclusion was the crack was caused from overuse in test operations. It was the program's second engine-related flight ban in less than two months. The Marines Corps version of the plane was grounded for nearly a month from mid-January because of a faulty hose in the engine, later blamed on manufacturing errors. (Source: New York Times, 02/28/13, Reuters, 03/01/13)