BAE Systems completes 150th aircraft set for F35 fighter programme

BAE Systems completed the manufacture of the 150th F-35 rear fuselage and tail set at its military aircraft factory in Samlesbury, Lancashire. The 150th aircraft set, known as AF070, is a Conventional Take Off and Landing variant destined for the US Air Force. AF070 will be married up with the rest of the aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s assembly facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Jon Evans, Head of Production Delivery, F-35 at Samlesbury said: “AF070 is the 150th aircraft set to leave our production facility. The first 20 sets were development phase, the rest production aircraft. We are now producing aircraft sets at a rate of one every five days thanks to the multi-million pound investment we made in the Samlesbury site, so we’re well on the way to producing one set a day by 2018.