Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has delivered a prototype of its all-composite air inlet duct to Northrop Grumman for the production of the F-35 centre fuselage.

The air inlet duct, known as the destructive test article, will be used to validate the quality of TAI’s composite manufacturing processes.

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TAI produced the air inlet duct at its facility in Turkey as part of a five-year $28.4m contract awarded by Northrop in September 2009.

Under the contract, TAI will produce inlet ducts for the current production of centre fuselages on Northrop’s F-35 assembly line in California and the 400 complete centre fuselages to be produced in Turkey.

TAI will begin delivery of the centre fuselages in 2013, as part the F-35 programme’s sixth phase of low-rate initial production.

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