Media Galleries

The following images represent just a snapshot of some of the Skunk Works’ leaders and aircraft that pushed, and continue to push, the envelope of aviation.

The F-35 Flight Test Update in the Volume 28, Number 1 issue of Code One concluded with the first aerial release of an AIM-120 AMRAAM from an F-35B on 26 March 2013. This eleventh installment in the series of flight test updates on the F-35 program covers the AIM-120 launch as well as other achievements of the F-35 Integrated Test Force located at Edwards AFB, California, and at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

An annual collection of recent and stunning aviation photos of Lockheed Martin aircraft.

Throughout all of his follow-on assignments since being a test pilot on the X-35, Tomassetti continued to be part of test events, working groups, and design reviews for the F-35.

Although retired in 2008, the F-117 Nighthawk would be the basis upon which subsequent stealth fighters, including the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II, would be designed. As remarked during a banquet celebrating the plane’s achievements in 2008, before the F-117, the question to ask was how many aircraft were needed to take out a target. After the Nighthawk, the question was how many targets could be taken out with a single aircraft.

Thailand traces its aviation history all the way back to 1912 when three of its military officers—Maj. Luang Sakdi Sanlayawut, Capt. Luang Arwut Likitkam, and Capt. Tip Ketuthat—earned their wings after successfully completing flight training in France. Their achievements made Thailand—then called Siam—the first country in Southeast Asia with a military flying unit.

F-35 Program Surpasses 100 pilots

The 301st FW has been moving toward Total Force Integration concept of operations since September 2007 when then Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley announced the 301st would be one of the Active Association homes of TFI.

The Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, better known as DARPA, has a reputation for applying innovative solutions to practical problems. Getting personnel and vehicles off of roads with known threats, such as improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, is one such problem. DARPA is addressing this problem in a program called ARES.

The Joint Precision Airdrop System, or JPADS, is a multipart, GPS-based method that allows for highly accurate parachute airdrop of cargo loads of various sizes from altitudes as high as 25,000 feet. And, with only a forty-minute flying time from Dyess AFB, Texas, to the extensive training ranges and drop zones at Fort Hood, the 317th Airlift Group has become a recognized leader in C-130 precision airdrop operations.