Originally Posted by
FODPlod
Originally Posted by
ORAC
Lord how time flies, 10 years next Thursday since the F-35 first flight. What a lot it has done since then...
Agreed. Ten years and over 75,000 hours on all three 5th generation variants, without any significant accidents or incidents, flying from airfields and ships with full payloads. USAF and USMC IOC achieved and USN IOC expected within the next year. Pretty impressive, even when compared with the less complex single (land) variant 4.5 generation Typhoon...
Further to my last, I have discovered that the F-35B STOVL variant didn't achieve
first flight until
11 Jun 2008. Graham Tomlinson, a former RAF Harrier pilot was at the controls.
The first operational RAF F-35B squadron (
No.617 Sqn RAF) is due to stand up at RAF Marham in
2019 (11 years after first flight). I haven't found a date for 809 Naval Air Squadron.
Over 200 F-35s have been built to date and this figure is expected to exceed 600 (with the consequent reduction in unit cost/price) by 2020, including 180 for US partner nations: