RAF F35 mock up at RIAT?

[Tiger 1]

Hi everyone

I was at RIAT on Saturday morning and made my way striaght over to the parked F35 near the Reds which was shortly joined by the RAF example.

With that, I made my way to the flightline as the hangar doors to the F35s were open and the remaining F35s were being moved about.

Having seen all the F35s now, I made my way up the flightline to get the Super Hornet and to my surprise could see another F35 behind the Hornet nose on to me, through the scope could clearly see it was in RAF markings but just didn't look right... Looked like a mock up.

I have not seen it mentioned anywhere and it was not listed on the check list.

Could any of you guys shed any light on to it for me.

I did take a photo of it that I can post later from home.

Many thanks in advance.

T1

[Rory76]

Lockheed Martin had a mock up outside their enclosure for corporate events pre-show. Suspect this is what you saw, as it was removed for the show, and the real F-35s were kept in the far end hangars when not on static line or flying.

[Tiger 1]

Hi Rory76

Many thanks for your reply and info .

Much appreciated.

Best rgds

T1

[young Philip]

The mock up F35 was towed back to the hangar on Thursday afternoon behind a forklift truck!

[Tiger 1]

Thanks young Philip

Much appreciate the help and info.

Best rgds

T1

[sabrejet]

The mock up F35 was towed back to the hangar on Thursday afternoon behind a forklift truck!

...and no doubt forklifted all the way to Farnborough by now.

[Thor]

The one you saw Saturday morning between the hangars was definitely the model, not the real thing. It was towed out from the hangar on the right of the gap in the early hours of Saturday morning after being one of the adornments at the gala dinner on the Friday night (along with the Zeus F-16 and the X-47B model). We parked it on the apron behind the hangars in front of some ISOs prior to towing the F-16 out.