Originally Posted by
FODPlod
The first two production F-35s (AF-1 and AF-2) arrived at Edwards AFB on 17 May 2010, i.e. over five years ago (
link). F-35s had clocked up over 15,000 flying hours by April last year (
link) so the figure is liable to be significantly higher by now. There have been no incidences of in-air catastrophic failure as far as I can tell and the level of system instrumentation and monitoring has been unprecedented.
Serious question: Wouldn't that provide sufficient data to start populating a MTBF database with some degree of confidence?
Maybe. Depends on how many configuration and design changes have occurred since their service lives began.