Thursday, January 19, 2012

The first night flight for the F-35 took place Jan. 18 at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Pilots at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB), Calif., have started to test fly the F-35 Lightning II fighter at night, Lockheed Martin announced Jan.19.
Flown by company test pilot Mark Ward, aircraft AF-6, which is an F-35A conventional takeoff and landing variant, took off at 17:05 on the afternoon of Jan. 18 and landed a little after sunset. The jet flew for a little more than an hour.
The sortie consisted of basic straight-in approaches, Lockheed’s press release said.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the country at Eglin AFB, Fla., Marine Maj. Joseph “O.D.” Bachmann flew the 33rd Fighter Wing’s third F-35B to the seaside base on Jan. 19. The addition of the short takeoff vertical landing fighter brings the total number of F-35s at the Florida base to nine. Two B-models and six F-35As were delivered earlier.


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