Lockheed Martin senior experimental test pilot Billie Flynn has just demonstrated the F-35A Lightning II in a critic sobering performance at the Paris Airshow.
This is the Paris debut of the F-35A model, which is the same variant Australia has purchased. Last year, the STOVL-capable F-35B variant made its international airshow debut at the Farnborough Air Show. However this F-35A display shows an greatly expanded envelope of the aircraft’s capabilities over the last display.
Earlier, in the Paris Air Show Conference Centre, F-35 pilot’s Lt. Col Scott “Cap” Gunn, USAF, 33rd Fighter Wing, along with Alan Norman, F-35 Chief Test Pilot, presented details of the F-35A’s aerial demonstration and how its maneuvers directly relat to operational flying.
USAF Col. (Brig. Gen; Select) Todd Canterbury, Director, USAF F-35 Integration Office hosted a program briefing discussing USAF F-35A operations and recent accomplishments, while an update was provided on the F-35’s program status and progress by Jeff Babione, Executive Vice President and General Manager F-35.
Lockheed Martin has been approached by the Joint Program Office (JPO) to draw up a block buy that would include the planned low-rate initial production (LRIP) lots 12 to 14 to deliver substantial savings, said Babione.
Those many critics need to think back to thetime when their predesessors were bagging the F-111, it was also plagued with ‘initial’ teethign issues, but went on to become one of the worlds benchmark strike platforms.
When F-35 pilot’s Lt. Col Scott “Cap” Gunn commenced flying the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter only five years ago, the aircraft’s flight envelope was restricted, heavily, as it was a developing platform with only 3Gs permitted at the time. But even back then, flying against an F-15C was an ‘even match’, he said.
Fast forward to three months ago, when Gunn flew against an F-16 Fighting Falcon within visual range, and the F-35’s performance had improved so much that the F-16 pilot believed the F-35 had undergone special modifications.
They’re the leaps and bounds being experienced by pilots, F-35 pilots who actually know and fly the platform. Today we all get an unclassified glimpse of the F-35 Lightening II Joint Strike Fighter.
Best of luck with the program, and its ongoing development Lockheed Martin.
One hundred of these 5th Generation F-35As will transition the Royal Australian Air Force into a next-generation net-centric fighter force that is capable of assuring the nation’s territorial integrity and national security. By operating the same aircraft as allies in the Asia-Pacific and around the world, the RAAF will take advantage of the F-35’s powerful sensors to share data to an unprecedented level of interoperability.
Australia’s first two F-35As, known as AU-1 and AU-2 were contractually delivered to the RAAF in 2014. In January 2015, the two aircraft were deployed to the U.S. Air Force’s Integrated Training Center at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona for pilot and maintainer training, and Squadron Leader Andrew Jackson, Australia’s first F-35A pilot, made history when he flew the first RAAF F-35 sortie in May 2015.