ONE of the most advanced combat aircraft in the world, which is partly built in East Lancashire, is set to touch down in the UK this week.

The rear fuselage of every F-35 Lightning II aircraft is built by a 1,500-strong team at BAE Systems base in Samlesbury – and production is set to continue for at least the next 20 years.

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While the aircraft lands this week it won’t make a first public appearance until next week at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, Gloucestershire, on Friday, July 8, before flying at the Farnborough International Air Show the following week.

BAE Systems expects to produce 63 fuselage units at its base in Lancashire this year rising to a peak of 160 per year by 2020 with 2,000 people employed on the programme.

The plane was due to arrive in 2014 but it was delayed by propulsion system problems.

Test pilot Peter ‘Wizzer’ Wilson, who was born in Whalley, said the defence giant already has orders for 3,500 planes which means the parts, which include the horizontal and vertical tails, will continue to be made in Lancashire for more than two decades years.

Mr Wilson, 50, who is based at Fort Worth in Texas and joined the F-35 programme 10 years ago, said: “I get to fly the aircraft while it’s under development when you’re not sure how it will behave.

“There’s a group of 30 of us who put it through its paces.

“What we are doing at the moment is making sure it can fly nicely when it has weapons attached to it.

“The aircraft is a very complex machine and to understand it to the point you can test it and know what it’s going to do next – I find it’s a huge challenge.

“It’s a puzzle and it drives me to want to know more.”

Mr Wilson, who now lives in Kent, said that he “loves the fact it’s built so close to where he was born”.

Cliff Robson, who is the senior vice-president for the F-35 Lightning II programme at BAE Systems, said that seeing the jet in action would be a proud moment for all those involved in the programme.

He said: “You can see it’s a step-change from all previous jets that have gone before it.

“So to have it displaying for the first time in the United Kingdom at RIAT, and then Farnborough, is a really big moment indeed.”

Since it joined the F-35 Lightning II programme in 1997 along with Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems has invested more than £150million in the development of major infrastructure to build world-leading machining and assembly facilities at Samlesbury.

The jet will go into service in the UK in 2018 and the first jets will join 617 Squadron – famously known as the Dambusters squadron - which will operate out of RAF Marham in Norfolk.