2016-03-07 Developmental testing is a fact of life for operational fleets. As one test engineer commented during our visit to Pax River, “we continue to do developmental testing on the Super Hornet here at Pax.” And with more than 50,000 flight hours on the F-35 fleet and an operational squadron with…
2016-03-10 By Robbin Laird When the first F-35 crossed the Atlantic from Cameri, Italy, to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, the plane had been assembled in Italy and had only 15 flight hours illustrating the confidence of Lockheed Martin and the Italian Government (and Italian pilot) in the maturity of the…
2016-03-08 The F-35 is a first generation information age combat aircraft. The USAF is training with this in mind, and has started the process of preparing the Air National Guard as well for the transition. According to a piece published February 16, 2016, by Airman 1st Class Andrea Posey, the…
03/08/2016: F-35 Heritage Flight Team qualified on March 6th 2016 during the Heritage Flight Conference to join the Air Combat Command Air Force Heritage Flight program. The program features modern USAF fighter aircraft flying alongside WW2, Korean War, and Vietnam-era aircraft in a display of airpower history. The F-35 Heritage team is from…
2016-02-28 By Edward Timperlake The skillfulness and success of fighter pilots in aerial combat is an extensively researched yet modestly understood and fundamentally complex concept. Innumerable physical and psychological factors along with chance opportunities affect a pilots facility for success in air combat. Perhaps the best narrative of the intangibles…
The F-35 is already part of the USMC combat force. It will join the USAF later this year. And next year the F-35C will come to the carrier air wing. In contrast to the constant barrage of chants from the Greek Chorus of program critics, the program is rapidly maturing.…
2016-03-05 According to an article published by Edwards AFB on 2/24/2016: A Dutch F-35A Lightning II will touch down on home soil for the first time for environmental compatibility trials this spring according to a Royal Netherlands Air Force release. [caption id="attachment_85353" align="alignnone" width="300"] Two Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A…
2016-03-05 The F-35 Integrated Test Force is based at Pax River and Edwards AFB and is a completely integrated test effort. In our interview with Andrew Mack, ITF chief test engineer, at Pax River, he discussed how integrated the two teams were in practice> We talk and work together every…
