TAI delivers F-35 center fuselage

Turkish Aerospace Industries Inc., subcontractor to Northrop Grumman, delivered its first F-35 center fuselage at a Dec. 11 ceremony at TAI's facilities in Ankara, Turkey. It's the first F-35 center fuselage made by TAI as a partner of Northrop Grumman, and will be used on a U.S. Air Force F-35 being assembled at Lockheed Martin's facilities in Fort Worth, Texas. At full rate production, TAI will support F-35 final assembly lines in the United States and Italy by shipping one center fuselage every 10 days. In addition to building center fuselages, TAI is the single source for center fuselage metallic assemblies for F-35A, selected composite components for all F-35 variants, and is one of two sources for composite air inlet ducts for F-35A, and air-to-ground alternate mission pylons for all F-35 variants. (Source: Northrop Grumman, 12/12/13) Gulf Coast note: Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., is home of the F-35 training center.