Chinese Engineer Charged for Smuggling F-35 Engine Designs

By Dustin M Braden - 11 Dec '14 18:22PM

The US government has brought charges against a Chinese citizen who is alleged to have tried to smuggle critical information related to the F-35 fighter jet out of the United States and into China.

Reuters reports the individual in question is an engineer named Yu Long, who worked on the design of the F-35's engine. The documents Long is charged with trying to smuggle pertained to the testing and equations used to engineer titanium that is used in the F-35 engine.

Long was caught by US Customs officials as he tried to board a flight to China at Newark Liberty International Airport. Long lived in Connecticut and was an employee of the United Technologies Research Center from 2008 until the company fired him in May of 2014 when it learned of the government investigation into Long.

The United Technologies Research Center is a part of the United Technologies Corp. that manufactures jet engines which are used in US military aircraft.

Reuters says that the incident in Newark was not Long's first problem with US Customs, and that incident also raised red flags. In Aug. 2014, Long was stopped at New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport with $10,000 in cash he failed to declare. He also had papers for the establishment of a Chinese corporation, and an application to work at state-run research center whose operations are devoted to aviation research. The application is said to have emphasized Long's previous work in engine development and manufacturing.

The F-35 fighter, which the engine Long was working on was developed for, has experienced numerous costly setbacks and redesigns.

The latest problem the F-35 experienced was reported by Jalopnik. The plane cannot run on fuel that has been heated by the sun was it sits in fuel trucks. This has lead to fuel trucks supporting the F-35 to be painted in bright white to deflect solar rays.

This, however, leaves the trucks easily identifiable from long distances, the last thing the military needs in a live combat situation.