{"id":5074,"date":"2019-11-25T09:28:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-25T14:28:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=5074"},"modified":"2019-11-25T09:28:27","modified_gmt":"2019-11-25T14:28:27","slug":"fighter-jets-ramp-up-testing-before-airport-runway-closure-next-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2019\/11\/25\/fighter-jets-ramp-up-testing-before-airport-runway-closure-next-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighter jets ramp up testing before airport runway closure next week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The rumble of jet engines flying over Lakeland has increased\nrecently resulting in several noise complaints, but city staff is asking\nresidents to bear with it for a few more days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Draken International, a national defense contractor, is\nrushing to finish flight testing its newly upgraded and regenerated Mirage F-1\nfighter aircraft before December.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re aware there has been an uptick in tempo to get these\nplanes out of here before they start runway construction,\u201d Gene Conrad,\ndirector of Lakeland Linder, said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 2, the airport\u2019s main Runway 9\/27, measuring 8,500\nfeet, or 1.61 miles, will be closed down for 90 days. The asphalt of the\nrunway, currently averaging a depth of 3.5 inches, according to Conrad, will be\nincreased to a uniform thickness of 9 inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sean Gustafson, Draken\u2019s vice president of business\ndevelopment, said the supersonic, radar-equipped F-1 military aircraft require\na longer runway to safely takeoff and land. Gustafson said Draken plans to\nrelocate the jets to Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada ahead of the scheduled\nrunway closure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On Dec. 2, Lakeland Linder International Airport\u2019s main\nRunway 9\/27, measuring 8,500 feet, or 1.61 miles, will be closed down for 90\ndays. The asphalt of the runway, currently averaging a depth of 3.5 inches,\naccording to airport director Gene Conrad, will be increased to a uniform\nthickness of 9 inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe last couple of days we\u2019ve been flying and getting our\npilots trained up in the F-1s,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first regenerated Mirage F-1 took to the skies on its\nmaiden flight over Lakeland on Friday. The aircraft has been upgraded with the\nassistance of Paramount Aerospace Systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cParamount has extensive capability on this aircraft with\nthe full airframe and engine overhaul capability, as well as the ability to\nupgrade and modernize avionics and mission systems,\u201d Steve Griessel, CEO of\nParamount Group, said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upgrading the fleet of former Spanish Air Force F-1s is\nimportant as the aircraft will be used in training missions with the U.S. Air\nForce, according to Gustafson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want to thank the local community for their support and\nnot getting too upset about the noise,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s training for the benefit\nof future airmen in the U.S. Air Force.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conrad said with the exception of Draken\u2019s jets, the\nairport\u2019s regular operations and flights will continue as scheduled on its\nalternate runway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The rumble of jet engines flying over Lakeland has increased recently resulting in several noise complaints, but city staff is asking residents to bear with it for a few more… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5074","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}