F35 Joint Strike Fighter

Before the end of this decade, the F35 Lightning II will provide the ultimate punch of the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers. The F35 – also known as the Joint Strike Fighter or Lightning II – is an Anglo-American joint effort, designed by the best and brightest in the two nations’ aircraft industries. Already two decades in development, prototypes of the fighter-bomber have been flying for ten years. Fleet Air Arm aviators will pilot the jump jet version, the F35C. The first British trials aircraft made its maiden flight in April 2012 and is due to begin its first trials flying on to and off the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth in 2018. A small team of Royal Navy engineers is working on the development and testing of the prototype F35 at Pax River in the USA, learning how to carry out routine maintenance and fix problems. The jet is the world’s first ‘fifth generation’ fighter (the WW2-era Meteor and Messerschmitt Me262 are first generation; the Harrier is third generation).