Yesterday, the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) and the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) announced their partnership in the Frankenjet project, an initiative aimed at recovering stealth fighters disabled by accidents and restoring their functionality in service to reduce the impact of their loss. In this case, Seoul became a pioneer by salvaging the airframe of a downed aircraft to use it for maintenance personnel training, making this process notable for being the first time the wings of an F-35 were removed and reinstalled.
It is worth recalling that the South Korean Air Force lost one of its F-35 Lightning II jets in January 2022, due to an emergency landing with its landing gear retracted after the aircraft collided with a bird. At the time, following an extensive technical review by ROKAF and JPO engineers, the jet was declared a total loss, with repair costs deemed prohibitive and unfeasible to restore it to full operational status.
The situation changed recently when the U.S. Air Force achieved a significant milestone for the Frankenjet program by restoring an F-35 fighter through the combination of parts from two decommissioned aircraft, AF-27 and AF-211. This breakthrough opened the door to exploring technical alternatives to fully scrapping these costly platforms. Specifically, the process involved integrating the nose section of the first aircraft (out of service since 2014 due to a fire) with the fuselage of the second (grounded since 2020 because of severe damage to its front landing gear).
Expanding on some specifics of the process undertaken by South Korea, it is worth noting that the aforementioned removal and reinstallation of the damaged F-35’s wings was necessitated by logistical challenges in transporting the aircraft from its storage location to the base where the restoration work would be carried out. These challenges posed risks to the aircraft’s structural integrity and implied significant transportation costs. Additionally, the operation involved not only personnel from ROKAF and its Logistics Command, but also representatives from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin and U.S. forces stationed on the peninsula.
Commenting on the effort, Matt Trodden, lead engineer of the Lightning Support Team’s aircraft recovery division, stated: “This was a significant challenge, as it was the first attempt to remove the wings of an F-35 as part of a conceptual demonstration (…) Despite initial doubts, the team worked flawlessly and completed the operation several weeks ahead of schedule, which validated the feasibility of wing removal and reinstallation.”
*Cover image: Scott Swofford
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