FASTER, PLEASE: F-47 Won’t Be Available Until Mid-2030s, Top Lawmaker Says. “Top Air Force leaders have set an ambitious goal to have the F-47 flying sometime in 2028, which would be about three years after the March 2025 contract award to Boeing. The F-35, by comparison, had its first flight in 2006, five years after Lockheed Martin beat Boeing to win the Joint Strike Fighter contract.”