The first production-equivalent F-35A conventional takeoff and landing Joint Strike Fighter on Nov. 14 took its first flight—an 89-minute stroll during which Lockheed Martin test pilot Doc Nelson flew it from the company’s Fort Worth plant to 20,000 feet, reached 0.6 Mach, and conducted some 360-degree rolls. A Lockheed release notes the AF-1 was built on the same production line—the first modern fighter moving assembly line—as the 31 low rate initial production F-35s now undergoing assembly. Continue
The B-52 bombers that flew off the coast of Venezuela on Oct. 15 were accompanied by Marine Corps F-35s as part of a so-called “Bomber Attack Demonstration,” according to new images and information from the Pentagon.
