Making Rounds: The F-35 cockpit demonstrator arrived Monday at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to give Aeronautical Systems Center personnel who are part of the multinational program’s management team a chance to experience the aircraft’s advanced capabilities close-up. “Our people have been working hard to see the F-35 through system development and demonstration,” Lt. Col. Anthony Genatempo, commander of ASC’s 640th Aeronautical Systems Squadron, said in a base release Sept. 9. He continued, “We’re delighted to be able to bring the cockpit demonstrator here so they can get a sense of what it’s like to fly it.” The cockpit demonstrator is a traveling, working mock-up of the stealth fighter’s cockpit, complete with wrap-around high-resolution displays to give pilots a sense of motion.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
