Plane safety

Lockheed Martin has selected Frazer-Nash Consultancy as the preferred safety case advisor for the Joint Strike Fighter F35 Lightning II (JSF), the world’s largest multinational fighter programme.

With a view to gaining certification and a ‘release to service’, the JSF Joint Project Office has endorsed the UK-based consultancy’s safety case approach. The approach was first used by the Ministry of Defence and has since become an increasingly key safety requirement for any aircraft, particularly those that rely on software for flight control and navigation.

JSF is under development for a number of allied defence forces including the US Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, the UK Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. It is a multi-role fighter designed for an air-to-ground role and will demonstrate two weapon systems on three commonly used aircraft variants.

Over the next five years, Frazer-Nash will use its expertise in air safety management to support Lockheed Martin’s development of the safety case for all three models of the JSF program.