F-35 test pilot completes 1,000th vertical landing

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By: Wording OD

British test pilot Peter "Wizzer" Wilson recently completed his 1,000th vertical landing in an F-35 Lightning II aircraft, BAE Systems announced Friday. It happened at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, about six years after a test pilot conducted the jet's first vertical landing, the company said. Wizzer is the lead test pilot for the Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35B variant, which will operate from Royal Navy Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. Flight trials on the British carrier are less than three years away. "Every day, the test team carries out numerous take-offs, landings and sorties with the aim of ensuring the aircraft is performing in accordance with our expectations," Wilson said. "To be the pilot who conducted the 1,000th vertical landing is a bit special." Wilson became the first pilot to launch the F-35B from a ski jump last June.

Lockheed contracted for retrofit kits for Marine Corps F-35B 

Washington (UPI) May 13, 2016 - Lockheed Martin has been awarded two F-35 contracts totaling about $41.5 million, including one to "correct deficiencies" on the U.S. Marine Corps F-35B. The first contract, worth $31 million, provides for long-lead materials, parts, components and effort required to maintain the planned production schedule for eight F-35A low-rate initial production Lot 12 vehicles for The Netherlands. Work will be performed at several U.S. locations as well as in the United Kingdom and Italy, with an expected completion date of March 2021. Under a $10.5 million modification to a separate contract, Lockheed is to provide 61 retrofit kits to correct deficiencies that preclude aircraft mission readiness in support of the Marines' F-35B aircraft initial operating capabilities. The work is expected to be finished by January 2019.

SOURCE: spacedaily.com