Special Delivery: Large aircraft transported across multiple states requires extra planning

The F-35 production aircraft made its way through South Central Kansas and Wichita on Monday, Aug. 21 

It was a long but successful trip as Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, Texas, provided an F-35 production aircraft to the National Institute for Aircraft Research in Wichita as part of an aircraft disassembly program.

This is a non-flying production aircraft, and as such, required transportation over the road on a specially-designed fixture/trailer. The aircraft has been disassembled to the smallest dimension possible, but the aircraft still requires an oversize permit for transport through Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.

The fuselage and shipping fixture weighs approximately 27,000 pounds. It is 48 feet long, 35.5 feet wide and 9.5 feet high. The aircraft’s travel route started in Ft. Worth on Aug. 19 and entered Oklahoma on Aug. 20. It traveled through Kansas on Aug. 21 along U.S. 77, K-15 and I-135 until it reached its final destination 2.5 miles east of Valley Center before noon.

The F-35 production aircraft made its way through South Central Kansas and Wichita on Monday, Aug. 21 

“They had a pretty good escort from the KHP and some other law enforcement officers, as well as our own KDOT maintenance folks,” said Wichita Metro Engineer Don Snyder. “ All of the on ramps were properly blocked off to keep the load moving down the road without any interference from other traffic.”

KDOT’s Director of Aviation Merrill Atwater said that transporting an aircraft of this size doesn’t happen very often in this part of the country.

“The aircraft is incredible,” Atwater said.  “How cool is it that we had the opportunity to help manage the logistics for taking an aircraft across about one-third of our state without any hiccups? That’s a lot of coordination and effort and those involved in the planning process deserve big kudos for getting that done.”