“Frankenjet” stealth fighter made from 2 wrecked warplanes is now fully operational, Air Force says

A fighter jet made from recycled plane parts is now operational, after more than two years of repairs, the U.S. Air Force announced Wedesday. The F-35A warplane has been dubbed “Frankenjet” because of its construction using previously broken, non-functional materials.

The Air Force’s F-35 Joint Program Office conceived of the idea for “Frankenjet” in late 2022. Working with the 388th Fighter Wing Maintenance Group and the defense manufacturer Lockheed Martin, they sought to remove the nose from one inoperative jet and transfer it onto another, an undertaking that the Air Force called a “first-of-its-kind and seemingly impossible task.”

Past accidents had rendered both planes involved in the project out of service. One had experienced an engine fire in 2014, and the other’s landing gear malfunctioned in 2020, according to the Air Force. To minimize waste — and the cost of military aircraft repairs for taxpayers — engineers put their experiment to the test.

“The scope and complexity of this project was an exemplary demonstration of overcoming barriers,” said Tomas Barber, an F-35 repair team engineer, in a statement. Barber also said its completion marked a new level of repair capabilities for advanced stealth fighters.

Building “Frankenjet” ultimately took two years and five months, the Air Force said. The project cost $11.7 million, which was $2.8 million less than anticipated, and resulted in $63 million overall in savings for the Department of Defense.

The warplane took its first flight in January from Hill Air Force Base in Utah to the Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas, the Air Force said. By the end of March, it was prepared to resume full service as part of the 4th Fighter Generation Squadron’s 388th Fighter Wing. The jet successfully traveled back from Fort Worth to the Utah base around that time, and afterward was officially considered fully operational.