ACC Heritage Flight Program: The F-35 Joins the Program

03/08/2016
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…

Squadron Fighter Pilots: The Unstoppable Force of Innovation for 5th Generation Enabled Concepts of Operations

03/07/2016
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…

Next F-35s Across the Atlantic: Dutch F-35s to Fly from Edwards to the Netherlands

03/05/2016
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…

Edwards AFB Looks Back at F-35 ITF Testing in 2015

03/05/2016
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…

First Arrestment of an F-35C with External Weapons Load

03/05/2016
2016-03-05  Lt. Cmdr. Daniel “Tonto” Kitts, an F-35 Lightning II test pilot assigned to the Salty Dogs of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) 23, landed in the history books Feb. 10, 2016, when he performed the first arrestment of an F-35C with external weapons. Flight 282 of aircraft CF-03…

Working 4th/5th Generation Integration: F-35s from Edwards Come to Mountain Home AFB

03/05/2016
2016-03-05  According to an article published by Airman 1st Class Jessica Evans and published on February 22, 2016, Edwards has sent F-35s to the Mountain Home AFB to work integration with legacy aircraft. MOUNTAIN HOME AIR FORCE BASE, Idaho - Six F-35As arrived at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, Feb. 8,…

Rolling Out the F-35 Fleet from the Testing Perspective: An Interview with the Chief Test Engineer for the F-35 ITF at Pax River

03/02/2016
2016-02-27 By Robbin Laird and Ed Timperlake During a recent visit to Pax River, we had the chance to discuss the F-35 test approach and way ahead with Andrew Maack. F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) chief test engineer. Although we were at Pax River, the F-35 ITF is rooted in…