Today Stork Fokker AESP, part of Stork Aerospace has delivered the 2000th shipset of Flaperons for the F-16 Fighting Falcon to Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. This unique delivery marks three decades of F-16 work packages produced in the Netherlands.

The F-16 work for Stork Fokker started in 1975 when the aircraft was purchased by the Dutch Government. The F-16 from Lockheed Martin entered service at the Royal Dutch Air force in 1979. Stork Fokker AESP has for nearly three decades been responsible for the manufacturing of various components and systems in excess of 1700 center fuselage components and more than 300 A/C have been assembled in the final assembly line. Stork Fokker expects to continue the delivery of Flaperons to Lockheed Martin until 2012 with a possible extension to 2016.

Erick Vink, Executive Vice President of Stork Aerospace commented:" This is an historic milestone in the long time involvement of Stork Fokker in the production of the F-16, never before so many shipsets have been delivered for a single aircraft program. The excellent cooperation with Lockheed Martin in this program and the successful and stable performance of both teams in the F-16 program contributed to our involvement in the F-35 JSF program. We are convinced that the F-35 JSF program will provide the same type of long time involvement for the Dutch aerospace industry as its predecessor, the F-16.

The F-16 has evolved into the most capable fourth-generation multirole fighter available. More than 4,400 F-16s have been produced for 24 countries with 52 follow-on buys by 14 customers