There has been a lot of buzz about the F35’s lately, both in the news and between the club members, and I promised to keep you posted on the latest about the development of this amazing jet.

Just this past March 18^th the Lockheed Martin F-35 completed its first vertical landing riding more than 41, 000 pounds of thrust!

What makes this news so exciting is that it confirms that the new F-35s will be able to land in confined spaces, which in this case was a 95 square foot landing pad. This is the first of the supersonic stealth jets that is capable of doing this, making the F-35 live up to its reputation as the best fighter jet in the world!

The F-35 is prepared to change the way our military uses fighter jets and the way military missions are completed.

The test was done at the Naval Air Station in Patuxent River, Maryland and involved both a vertical landing as well as short take-off. It performed an 80 knot take off from the station and several minutes later positioned itself 150 feet above the airfield, hovered for approximately one minute, and then completed the vertical landing.

This gives it the ability to both perform short take-offs on land and at sea, expanding the military’s use of fighter jets to more remotes area, the ability to use fighter jets from smaller ships, and land and take-off from unprepared airfields.

The F35’s have the most powerful engines of any fighter jet in existence, but is still the most agile fighter jet being flown today!

I am also really excited about the potential offensive and defensive technology that we are going to see on these jets.

Keep the forums going everyone!