F-35 Climatic Testing

The F-35C Carrier Suitability Test Team deployed aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69) for Developmental Test Phase Two (DT-II) in October 2015. Trials with F-35C test aircraft CF-03 and CF-05 spanned nine days in operating areas near the Atlantic coast between Florida and Virginia. DT-II followed a successful round of initial sea trials in 2014.

The operational career of the F-111 came to an end on 3 December 2010 at RAAF Amberley, as a crew in an F-111C (serial number A8-125) of the Royal Australian Air Force touched down for the aircraft’s last landing. The RAAF had operated the F-111 since 1973. A8-125 was the first F-111C to land at Amberley that year.

Two months shy of twenty-seven years since it was first flown, the F-117 was retired in ceremonies on 21 April 2008 at Holloman AFB, New Mexico, where it had been operated by the 49th Fighter Wing since 1992, and then on 22 April in Palmdale, California, for the people who had designed and built it at the then-Lockheed facilities there.

Many of the photos in this collection were taken specifically for a special cockpit issue of Code One that was published as the No. 1 issue in 2007.

The fifth generation of fighters, the Lockheed Martin F-22 and F-35, fundamentally changes the concept of operations for combat. A review of the first four generations of fighter aircraft around the world shows why.

The Multi-Axis Thrust Vectoring system allowed the F-16 to maneuver effectively beyond its twenty-five degree angle of attack limit to almost 100 degrees AOA.

F-35B test aircraft BF-17 was flown over Edwards AFB, California, during several aerial refueling missions behind KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender tankers. The tests involved a drogue adapter attached to the centerline refueling boom on the KC-135 and the hose-and-drogue refueling system on the KC-10.

Every major US weapon system and its associated equipment make the trek to Eglin to undergo environmental testing at the lab. The F-35 is the latest to be frozen, baked, deluged, snowed, blown, fogged, and humidified.

Various images of F-35A Lightning II.

F-35B Lightning II photo collection.