F-35A AF-4 First Flight

Posted 30 December 2010

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Photo by Carl Richards

The fourth conventional takeoff and landing variant, AF-3, completed its first flight on 30 December 2010. Piloted by Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti, AF-4 took off from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas. AF-4 is the tenth F-35 to fly and the third test jet to fly with the next-generation avionics package that will populate all operational F-35s. The successful flight was the final test mission of 2010 for the Joint Strike Fighter program, which logged 410 flights for the year.

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