The first F-35 took about 160,000 labor hours to build, and Lockheed Martin says a single F-35 now takes around 18 months from start to finish. The first F-35 rolled off the factory floor in 2006.

Build time

  • First F-35A: about 160,000 labor hours.
  • Current production aircraft: about 18 months to build.
  • The first completed F-35 came off the line in 2006.

Context

That big drop in build time shows how production matured after the early prototypes and initial lots. Later F-35As were built much faster, with one report saying a recent F-35A needed about 43,000 hours.

TL;DR: the very first F-35 took roughly 160,000 work hours , which is about 1.5 years of production time in today’s terms.