In its first demonstration of supersonic flight, the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter flew Nov. 13 at Mach 1.05 or about 680 mph—and carried the weight of a full internal weapons load, according to a Nov. 14 company release. “The F-35 transitioned from subsonic to supersonic just as our engineers and our computer modeling had predicted,” said Jon Beesley, Lockheed’s chief F-35 test pilot, commenting, too, on its retention of “precise handling qualities” at that high speed. Beesley flew the conventional takeoff and landing F-35 AA-1 from Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Tex., production facility, climbing to 30,000 feet and accelerating to Mach 1.05 over a rural area in north Texas for a period of eight minutes and four transitions through the sound barrier, stated the release. Future testing will take the aircraft to its top speed of Mach 1.6 with a full weapons load. Beesley noted that it was significant that the F-35 had achieved its first supersonic flight with a full load.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
