Guest post by Drs. Tim Renfro, TIkhon Bykov, and Wayne Keith from the Physics Department

Thirteen students and three faculty with the Society of Physics Students (SPS) traveled to Fort Worth, Texas, on Friday November the 7th, to visit the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company and see physics and engineering in action.

We began with a golf-cart tour of the huge and historic main assembly building. Inside, we toured the assembly lines of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the F-22 Raptor, and the F-35 Lightning II. Production of the three variations of the new F-35 is just starting to ramp up, we saw a lot of work being done on the assembly jigs themselves, along with the partly-completed first two production aircraft in the Air Force (conventional takeoff and landing) variation. The same assembly line will also be used for the Navy’s carrier landing variation and the Marine Corps/Royal Air Force’s STOVL (Short Takeoff Vertical Landing) variation.

Next, we took a bus over to the Flight Simulator Lab. This lab contains a variety of flight simulators, from some that look like high-end video games to others that ride atop massive hydraulics. Others actually control a room full of actuators to get as much real aircraft hardware in the loop as possible. Next, we visited the F-35 Structural Test Lab. We got to climb up onto the test fixture containing an F-35 test article that was connected to a variety of hydraulic rams designed to push and pull on the airframe in order to simulate stresses during flight. We also saw additional F-35 structural testing hardware and a partly-completed flight test aircraft, along with the older F-16 testing fixtures and a UAE F-16 that had just completed some tests.

Our next stop was the Flight Test Facility where we visited the Flight Test Instrumentation Shop, the Strain Gauge Lab, and the Mission Control room where the flight testing is monitored. Finally, we went to the Flight Test Mod hangar where four Pakistani F-16’s were being refitted. These were never delivered to Pakistan due to an embargo and have been used as chase planes until recently. We got to go up and look into the stripped-down airframe and could even see the original General Dynamics ID plate in the cockpit area stating that the plane was originally built in 1984.

Later in the day, Lockheed treated SPS to a Bar-B-Que dinner.

SPS and the Department of Physics would like to thank Dick Richardson, McMurry University Alumni (class of 1971), and Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company for hosting the tour and granting us clearance to see their wonderful facilities.  It was a wonderful experience.