First F-35 flight may be Monday

By Jim Wolf and Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the costliest weapons procurement project ever, is set to make its maiden test flight next week, a U.S. general running the project said on Tuesday.

"I am optimistic that we will see the airplane fly as early as Monday" at Lockheed Martin Corp.'s Fort Worth, Texas, test site, Marine Brig. Gen. David Heinz, the Pentagon program office's deputy director, told the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit in Washington, D.C.

At a projected $276.5 billion, the planned family of radar-evading warplanes represents the Pentagon's priciest planned purchase -- more than 2,400 aircraft by 2027 for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps.

Three single-engine F-35 models are to replace aging F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and a range of other fighter and strike aircraft for the United States and its friends over the next 30 years.

The supersonic, multirole aircraft's development has been co-financed by eight international partners -- Britain, Italy, Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway.

Heinz predicted all eight partners would buy F-35s by 2014, bringing their combined purchases to more than 3,100 aircraft, including the more than 2,400 planned for the United States and 138 scheduled for Britain.

As early as 2010, the Pentagon expects to define an F-35 configuration for sale to even more countries through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program, Heinz said.

The first buyers of these models likely would include Spain, Israel and Singapore, he said.  Continued...