Overview
The Lockheed Martin CATBird is a highly modified Boeing 737-330 designed as an avionics flight testbed aircraft. The name is an adaptive acronym, from Cooperative Avionics Test Bed; CATBIRD is Lockheed's ICAO-designated company callsign. The aircraft was modified in order to provide an economic means of developing and flight testing the avionics suite for the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. CATBird has a distinctive appearance, with an F-35's nose and a pair of small canards located just aft of the forward entrance doors. Inside, the aircraft is equipped with racks to hold all of F-35's avionics, as well as an F-35 cockpit.
Specifications
Figures are compiled from public sources and may be approximate; they can vary by variant and configuration.
Photos
Photo 1: Coolcaesar at en.wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Some text and images come from Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons under CC BY-SA licences. Source
