First Service Member Flies F-35
Air Force Lt. Col. James Kromberg, a former Marine aviator, became the first service member to fly the F-35 on Wednesday at Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base, Texas.
Kromber is director of operations for the 461st Flight Test Squadron, Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. He served in the Marine Corps from 1987-2003 and has more than 3,200 flight hours on the AV-8B Harrier, T-38, F-15 and F-16.
Attached to the F-35 test team since 2005, Kromberg has logged plenty of hours on the Joint Strike Fighter’s simulator. He also helped draft the aircraft’s initial flight manual, test plans and aircrew training procedures.
“I have been smiling since arriving at the aircraft this morning and haven’t stopped,” Kromberg said on the day of the flight, according to an Air Force press release.
Kromberg’s initial test flight put the JSF through takeoff, handling qualities maneuvers, engine throttle transients, formation maneuvers with an F-16 and landing.
He took off from Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth plant at 11:54 a.m. Central Time, flew to 6,000 feet and checked handling qualities at a 15-degree angle of attack, the release said. He then climbed to 10,000 and 12,000 feet, assessing the up-and-away flight-control response.
Kromberg, whose call sign is “Flipper,” also tested the F-35’s engine performance and formation-flying characteristics.
“The aircraft was responsive across all flight regimes,” he said. “The engine thrust response was excellent — accelerating very quickly. The aircraft was very stable during formation flight.”
Further flight tests on the F-35 will include envelope expansion, flying qualities evaluations, subsystems testing and initial systems assessments, according to the release. Edwards will host further F-35 flight tests in the spring.
(AP)
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That is one badass fast mover, and I do believe STOVL variants can be flown from our LHA and LHDs. This will definitely surpass the Harrier, and give our Amphib task forces yet another offensive capability. That’s not even accounting for the conventional Air Force version, nor the Navy’s carrier variant! The US shall own the skies over any theater of operations, for some decades to come.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pmOH BOY
OK This is an airplane and it has huge variation capacity
it can be made in a strip-o-model or for mega bucks can fly better than a Harrier. It is still expensive (very) but once under manufacture the price will drop because of a single body being made into so many variants IE. AF, Navy, Marine all can use a common air frame then a variant that suits each.
It’s the F-22 that is the redundant, expensive, single role, unneeded, no future, pet project.
Unrelated question, Why does McCain not think like a fighter jock anymore? @ one point in his life he had to.
February 2nd, 2008 at 2:56 pmMark-
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:15 pmSure he does. He knows everything, is easily insulted, never forgets a slight and lives for the spotlight. …oh yeah, and if anything goes wrong it’s never his fault.
@TBinSTL
“Sure he does. He knows everything, is easily insulted, never forgets a slight and lives for the spotlight. …oh yeah, and if anything goes wrong it’s never his fault.”
Best assesment of Captain Queeg that I’ve heard yet. Well done.
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 pm
TBinSTL
February 2nd, 2008 at 3:53 pmI was referring to the better pilots who don’t just function on ego, so I guess using your description I’d have to agree.
It’s painfull as well as self insulting to be around the others so they usually receive what they deserve, NOTHING.
I’m sure this is a fine aircraft. US techologists have no peer. But in an era of limited budgets, its too damned expensive. What we need are bombs, bullets and beans. We’re in a war, and that’s where our limited budgets need to be focused right now.
February 2nd, 2008 at 5:13 pm
DAN
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:17 pmThat is true, thats exactly what we need right now, if this could stay on the back burner it represents the end to the
bottomless pit of AF expenditures for planes that out mode themselves in 10 years or less. It is called the Joint Strike fighter so if the Joint part could pay to bring the thing online (England, France, Germany) it would be an answer rather than a burdensome waste.
But as you say, right now our hands are full.
I say, just grow some balls Washington, and xfer all the budget for welfare to the DoD. It’s time to admit defeat; the War on Poverty is a failure! That money is better spent on the military, anyway.
February 2nd, 2008 at 10:57 pmAlthough expensive the good news is that it wouldn’t take but a handful of these new fighters to decimate any other nations air force. I doubt any potential foe would even have the balls to send up their fighters to confront the F-35. The only way they would even know the F-35 was there is by the missle sticking out of their ass. I love this new stealthy badass. I also love the fact it was a Marine that was the first to fly her.
BTW–Some may not have gotten the latest dem (and McCains - redundant?) press release: After 50 years of throwing taxpayers money at the “poor” to buy votes, politicians have decided to throw our money at the more progressive, trendy cause of “saving the environment” to buy votes.
February 3rd, 2008 at 1:04 pm