2013-01-28 The F-35 flight test program ended a successful year in 2012. We have interviewed many of the participants in the flight test program at Eglin AFB, Fort Worth and Yuma Arizona. The standup of the first F-35B squadron with the USMC is part of an overall innovation approach being…
2012-11-19 According to a Lockheed Martin Press Release: An F-35A Lightning II conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) aircraft rapidly expanded its high angle of attack (AOA) test envelope to its 50 degree limit in only four flights during recent flight testing here. F-35A test aircraft are limited to AOAs of…
Weapons certification is the next step to moving the F-35 along to initial operational capability. The standing up of the first F-35 B squadron at Yuma Air Station in November will see the process of building a capable F-35 force begin. Weapons certification is an important step as well. In…
2012-08-03 by Robbin Laird We have posted a number of articles during the UK government's deliberation with regard to the F-35C versus the F-35B. In a PDF special report included in this article, we have brought those articles together into one report. A key element not so obvious within the…
Landing an F-35B vertically is more straightforward than it looks, and far easier than doing the same in an AV-8B Harrier, said Peter Wilson, a former U.K. military aviator who is now BAE Systems’ chief test pilot. “It’s just like magic,” Wilson told the reporters who assembled at the Farnborough…
In an interview at Eglin AFB, Lt. Col. Lee Kloos, the first non-test pilot to start his transition to the F-35 discusses the experience. Kloos has 2000 hours of flight experience on the F-16 and is a USAF Weapons School graduate. Kloos started his F-35 training at Eglin last October. …
A long-time analyst of global defense issues, he has worked in the U.S. government and several think tanks, including the Center for Naval Analysis and the Institute for Defense Analysis. He is a Columbia University alumni, where he taught and worked for several years at the Research Institute of International…
BK-1, the United Kingdom’s first F-35 Lightning II production aircraft, flew its inaugural flight mid-April 2012. Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti took the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) jet through a series of functional flight checks during a sortie that lasted 45 minutes. The jet will complete a series of…
