HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — The US Air Force calls it the “Frankenjet,” a stealth fighter stitched together from the parts of two F-35s wrecked in accidents that is now on duty and combat ready.
“’Frankenjet’” is fully operational and ready to support the warfighter,” a report from the military’s F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said on Wednesday.
The recycled warplane traces its origins to 2014, when an F-35A about to take off on a training mission from Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base suffered “catastrophic engine failure,” according to an Air Force report on the incident.
The aircraft, known as AF-27, also sustained major damage to its rear.
Pieces of a fractured engine rotor arm “cut through the engine’s fan case, the engine bay, an internal fuel tank, and hydraulic and fuel lines before exiting through the aircraft’s upper fuselage,” an investigation concluded.
The resulting fire burned the rear two thirds of the fighter jet, it said.
Then on June 8, 2020, the nose landing gear on another F-35A, known as AF-211, failed on landing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, resulting in severe damage to that warplane, according to reports on the incident.
So, the Air Force was left with two useable pieces of $75 million fighter jets – the nose of AF-27 and the rear of AF-211.
“Rather than writing off both jets as a loss … teams made a bold decision in 2022 to remove the nose from AF-27 and put it onto AF-211 to maximize savings and add back an operational aircraft to the fleet,” a report from the F-35 JPO said.
Scott Taylor, lead mechanical engineer for manufacturer Lockheed Martin, put the effort in perspective in a 2023 news release.
“All of the aircraft sections can be de-mated and re-mated theoretically, but it’s just never been done before,” Taylor said. “This is the first F-35 ‘Frankin-bird’ to date. This is history.”
The work was done at Hill AFB, with “entirely new, unique specialized tooling, fixtures, and equipment,” the 2023 Air Force press release said.
Almost two and a half years of repairs paid off in January, when the Frankenjet flew for the first time, from Hill AFB to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
“The rebuilt aircraft’s first flight was flown to the edges of the performance envelope, and it performed like it was fresh from the initial production line,” Jeffrey Jensen, the F-35A variant lead engineer, said in a press release.
Late last month, Frankenjet was flown back to Hill AFB and assigned to the 338th Fighter Wing, the same unit AF-211 had originally belonged to.
The military statement put the cost of the Frankenjet project at $11.7 million, saying it saved the Pentagon and taxpayers $63 million over the cost of a new replacement aircraft.
The US Air Force has 383 F-35As in its fleet, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The F-35A is one of the three versions of the US military’s stealth fighter. The Marine Corps flies the F-35B – a short take-off, vertical landing aircraft – and the Navy flies the F-35C, designed for aircraft carrier operations.
F-35s have also become a popular choice for US allies and partners, with 17 other countries either flying or acquiring the jets, according to Lockheed Martin.
