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For most of 2012, the ITF operated six F-35As assigned to Edwards—three for flight sciences testing and three for mission systems testing. By the end of 2013, the ITF will be operating three additional F-35s—two F-35Bs and one F-35C, for a total of nine F-35s.

The F-35 Flight Test Update in the Volume 27, Number 3 issue of Code One concluded with the first aerial release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM on 19 October 2012. This tenth installment in the series of flight test updates on the F-35 program covers numerous other weapon releases as well as other achievements of the F-35 Integrated Test Force located at Edwards AFB, California, and at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

The F-111 was a medium-range interdiction and tactical strike aircraft that also filled the roles of strategic bomber, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare in its various versions. Developed in the 1960s by General Dynamics, the aircraft first entered service in 1967 with the United States Air Force. A total of 563 F-111s rolled off the production line in Fort Worth, Texas.

Construction of the Consolidated Aircraft Corporation plant in Fort Worth was completed in less than a year. Assembly of the first B-24 Liberator bomber began in February 1942 while parts of the facility were still under construction. Women comprised a third of the plant's work force in the war years, which eventually saw production of 3,034 B-24 Liberators.

Every so often employees at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics are asked to clean house. They go through their desk drawers and file cabinets to discard old and unnecessary materials to make space for the new. This process often results in unearthing items of historical significance. This was the case in 1990 and again 2006, when concepts or advanced design drawings, reports, and other documents dating back to the 1940s and ’50s were found.

Early in 2012 we invited Code One readers and contributors to send us their best photos. We asked for recent, striking photographs of current Lockheed Martin aircraft to develop a “Best of Code One” theme for the 2013 edition of the calendar.

This Hercules packs a punch! Harvest HAWK is the armed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance version of the Marine Corps KC-130J tanker that has proven very succesful in Afghanistan.

Since June 2012, the F-35 Integrated Test Force set new records of 135 System Development and Demonstration, or SDD, flights for 239 SDD flight hours and more than 1,100 test points in August 2012. With training pilot checkouts at Eglin AFB, Florida, and test pilot qualifications at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, fifty-five pilots have flown the F-35 Lightning II as of October 2012.

The F-35 Integrated Test Force, or ITF, at Pax, one of multiple test sites for the F-35 program, is responsible for flight testing the seagoing variants of the F-35, which include the short takeoff/vertical landing F-35B variant and the F-35C carrier variant.

More than 150 US Air National Guardsmen from the 187th Fighter Wing, the Alabama Air National Guard unit at Dannelly Field ANGB in Montgomery, deployed to Romania in August to participate in Dacian Viper 2012, a three-week joint exercise with the Romanian Air Force.