Aircraft
STOVL first flight hailed during JSF briefing
Yesterday’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter briefing turned into a celebration of the recent first flight of the F-35B STOVL version.

Yesterday’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter briefing turned into a celebration of the recent first flight of the F-35B STOVL version. The three customers for the new-generation jump jet (the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.K. and Italy) lined up to sing its praises. Test pilot Graham Tomlinson from BAE Systems was on hand to describe the maiden flight.

Also attending was U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. C.R. Davis from the F-35 Program Office. He spoke out last week against what he described as Boeing’s desperate attempts to bad-mouth the Joint Strike Fighter. Yesterday, though, his remarks were confined to some program specifics.