First Cat Launch

Posted 27 July 2011

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Photo by Andy Wolfe

Navy test pilot Lt. Christopher Tabert took to the sky on 27 July 2011 in an F-35C test aircraft launched by a steam catapult for the first time at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. Aircraft carrier catapult launches accelerate the F-35 to takeoff speed with full fuel and ordnance over a short, 300-foot power stroke, transmitting more than 250,000 pounds of pull force through the F-35’s nose gear launch system and structure. The test aircraft, CF-3, arrived from the primary F-35C test and evaluation site, NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, the day before this first launch. This was Flight 8 for CF-3.

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