April 3, 2013 PATUXENT RIVER, Md. - An F-35B Lightning II completed the first short takeoff and vertical landing during a test mission at night to expand the flight envelope and deliver capability to the warfighter. Marine Corps test pilot Maj. C.R. Clift conducted the flight April 2 to gather…
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…
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. …
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…
01/25/2012 The first night flight in the history of the F-35 Program was completed Wednesday, January 18, 2011 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Piloted by Lockheed Martin Test Pilot Mark Ward, AF-6, an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, launched at 5:05 p.m. PST and landed after sunset…
