Special to WorldTribune.com

ANKARA — Turkey has delivered its first fuselage for the U.S.-origin Joint Strike Fighter.

The state-owned Turkish Aerospace Industries supplied the first center fuselage of the F-35. On Dec. 11, TAI completed the delivery to Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin in a ceremony in Ankara.

“Delivery of this high quality, affordable center fuselage on time has been another major milestone,” TAI president Muharrem Dortkasli said. “TAI will continue utilizing its capability and capacity throughout the life of the program until 2040s.”

TAI has been a supplier to Northrop of the center fuselage of the JSF in a program worth up to $4 billion. The Turkish project required U.S. training and help in building production facilities for the assembly. Turkey has been a partner in the JSF program and plans an initial procurement of two fifth-generation aircraft.

“It is now time to begin delivering world-class TAI center fuselages to the final production line at an increasing rate every year,” Dortkasli said.

Officials said TAI would ship a center fuselage every 10 days once the
program reaches full production. The company has been the single source for
center fuselage metallic assemblies for the F-35A as well as some composite components for all JSF
variants. TAI was also producing composite air inlet ducts for F-35A, and
air-to-ground alternate mission pylons for all F-35 variants.

“We worked hand-in-hand to manufacture the first center fuselage,
following established processes implemented by Northrop Grumman on our own
assembly line in California,” Northrop vice president Brian Chappel said.
“Together, we are driving down costs and raising efficiencies to help the
F-35 program meet its affordability goals.”

  Joint Strike Fighter, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, Turkey delivers first ‘world-class’ center fuselage for F-35, Turkish Aerospace Industries