The U.S. Air Force has officially welcomed the “Frankenjet” into its fleet a stealth fighter pieced together from two F-35s that were previously wrecked in separate accidents. Now fully operational and combat-ready, the hybrid jet is a testament to military ingenuity.
“‘Frankenjet’ is fully operational and ready to support the warfighter,” the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) confirmed in a statement released Wednesday.
The jet’s origins date back to 2014, when an F-35A designated AF-27 suffered catastrophic engine failure just before takeoff during a training mission at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. According to the Air Force, a fractured engine rotor arm tore through multiple systems slicing into the engine bay, internal fuel tank, and hydraulic lines before bursting through the upper fuselage. The resulting fire consumed the rear two-thirds of the aircraft. Then in 2020, another F-35A, known as AF-211, sustained major damage during a landing mishap at Hill Air Force Base in Utah. Its nose landing gear collapsed on touchdown, severely damaging the front of the jet. Faced with two badly damaged $75 million aircraft, the Air Force found a novel solution: combine the undamaged front section of AF-27 with the intact rear of AF-211 creating one mission-ready fighter from the remnants of two.
"Instead of writing off both jets as total losses, teams made a bold call in 2022 they removed the intact nose of AF-27 and grafted it onto AF-211, salvaging parts to create a single, mission-ready aircraft," the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said in its report. Scott Taylor, lead mechanical engineer at Lockheed Martin, highlighted the unprecedented nature of the effort in a 2023 news release.
“Technically, every section of the F-35 can be taken apart and reassembled, but no one had ever actually done it until now,” Taylor said. “This is the first ‘Franken-bird’ in F-35 history. It’s a milestone.”
The intricate operation took place at Hill Air Force Base using entirely new, custom-built tooling, fixtures, and equipment, according to a 2023 statement from the Air Force.
After nearly two and a half years of intensive repairs, the effort paid off in January when the Frankenjet took to the skies for its maiden flight traveling from Hill Air Force Base to Lockheed Martin’s F-35 facility in Fort Worth, Texas.
“The rebuilt aircraft’s first flight pushed the limits of its performance envelope, and it handled like it had just rolled off the production line,” said Jeffrey Jensen, lead engineer for the F-35A variant, in a press release. By late March, the jet had returned to Hill AFB and was officially assigned to the 388th Fighter Wing the same unit that once operated AF-211, one of the original donor aircraft.
According to the military, the Frankenjet project cost $11.7 million a fraction of the price of a new F-35A saving the Pentagon and taxpayers an estimated $63 million.
The U.S. Air Force currently operates 383 F-35A aircraft, based on data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies. The F-35A is one of three variants of the U.S. military’s advanced stealth fighter. The Marine Corps uses the F-35B, which is capable of short take-offs and vertical landings, while the Navy flies the F-35C, built for aircraft carrier operations.
The F-35 has also gained traction internationally. According to Lockheed Martin, 17 allied and partner nations are either flying or in the process of acquiring the jet.
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