BOEING FIGHTER MAKES FIRST FLIGHT.

Byline: Jim Skeen Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Boeing's X-32B joint strike fighter made its first flight Thursday, starting four months of tests to demonstrate the short-takeoff/vertical landing capabilities sought by the U.S. Marine Corps.

Taking off conventionally - without using its short-takeoff capability - from Air Force Plant 42, the plane reached 10,000-foot altitude and about 220 mph before landing 50 minutes later at Edwards Air Force Base.

``The airplane looked great and felt great,'' Boeing test pilot Dennis O'Donoghue said after landing at Edwards. ``Everything went according to plan.''

The jet spends six weeks at Edwards testing its basic airworthiness. Then it will be flown cross-country to the Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, where it will be tested for 2 1/2 months.

The core of the testing will be how well the craft makes the transition from conventional flight to hovering and vertical landings. Most of that work is to be done at the Navy base in Maryland.

``It is the most complicated activity we have to demonstrate,'' said Frank Statkus, general manager of Boeing's joint strike fighter program.

The joint strike fighter is being developed to replace the Air Force's F-16s and A-10s and the Marine Corps' AV-8B Harrier and F-18 fighters. The fighter will also augment the U.S. Navy's F-18 fighters.

The United Kingdom is a partner in the the program and wants the jets to replace its Sea Harrier and GR-7 jets. The United Kingdom is investing more than $2.8 million into the development of the joint strike fighters.

Combined, the two nations plan to buy more than 3,000 joint strike fighter aircraft. There is a potential for an equal number of sales to U.S. allies.

Proving the short-takeoff/vertical landing, or STOVL, capabilities is considered one of the crucial tasks for joint strike fighter competitors Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

A winner in the competition is expected to be picked this year.

Boeing is going with improved variation of the direct-lift systems already used by Harrier jets. To take off and land vertically, the engine system redirects engine thrust downward through lift nozzles. To transition back to normal flight, the nozzles are closed and the thrust directed to the rear.

``Our STOVL design uses matured technology to improve an operational design rather than invent a new system and wait to mature it in the future,'' Statkus said.

Lockheed Martin is trying a new system that uses a shaft-driven lift fan mounted directly behind the cockpit to generate cool-air vertical thrust. Lockheed Martin officials say the system generates more lift and, because it runs cooler, helps the engine run more efficiently.

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(color) Pilot Dennis O'Donoghue tests the Boeing joint strike fighter X-32B's short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing capabilities.