F-35 Flight Test Update 7

4 October 2011: Marine Corps Lt. Col. Fred Schenk flew the first short takeoff at sea from the USS Wasp (LHD-1) in F-35B BF-2 following the first landing at sea the previous day.

6 October 2011: Marine Corps Maj. Richard Rusnok landed the second F-35B, test aircraft BF-4, aboard the USS Wasp.

10 October 2011: Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Canin flew the final six F-35C steam ingestion catapult launches in test aircraft CF-3 at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

14 October 2011: US Government pilot Vince Caterina was at the controls as an Air Force KC-10 tanker refueled the F-35 for the first time. The 2.2-hour flight out of the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards AFB, California, marked Flight 63 for F-35A AF-4. 

18 October 2011: The F-35 System Development and Demonstration fleet surpassed 2,000 total flight hours. The milestone includes flight hours on the first test aircraft, AA-1. The flight test team flew eight flights 18 October: four F-35A, three F-35B from the USS Wasp, and one F-35C sortie. 

18 October 2011: Lockheed Martin test pilot Dan Levin became the thirtieth pilot to fly the F-35 when he took off from Edwards AFB, California, in F-35A AF-7 for a 1.4-hour test mission. Levin is slated to support F-35 flight testing at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

21 October 2011: F-35B completed initial ship suitability testing as the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp (LHD-1) returned to homeport and F-35Bs BF-2 and BF-4 returned to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland.

24 October 2011: Air Force Lt. Col. George Griffiths reached the maximum design limit speed of Mach 1.6 for F-35A for the first time during a 0.8-hour flight from Edwards AFB, California. The flight marked AF-1 Flight 170. 

31 October 2011: Lockheed Martin test pilot David Nelson flew F-35A AF-4 for the 400th F-35A conventional takeoff and landing System Development and Demonstration test flight of 2011. The half-hour flight marked AF-4 Flight 73. 

31 October 2011: The F-35 System Development and Demonstration program recorded 122 flights and 73 vertical landings in October, the most flights achieved in one month to date for the F-35 fleet. F-35B BF-2 was flown on twenty-two of those flights, the most for an individual F-35 test aircraft in a single month.  

2 November 2011: Marine Corps Maj. Russell Clift became the thirty-first pilot to fly the F-35 when he took off from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, in F-35B BF-4 for a 1.2-hour test mission. Clift is the sixth USMC pilot to fly the F-35. The pilot familiarization mission marked BF-4 Flight 85.

4 November 2011: A TC-7 steam catapult launched an F-35 for the first time with Navy Lt. Christopher Tabert at the controls. This launch was also the first F-35C catapult launch at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland. The launch began the 0.7-hour Flight 32 for F-35C test aircraft CF-3. Previous catapult launches used a TC-13 Mod 2 test steam catapult at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.