F-35A AF-3 First Flight

Posted 6 July 2010

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Photo by Carl Richards

The third conventional takeoff and landing variant, AF-3, completed its first flight. Piloted by Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti, AF-3 took off from NAS Fort Worth JRB, Texas. AF-3 is the ninth F-35 to fly and the second test jet to fly with the next-generation avionics package that will populate all operational F-35s.

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