First UK Pilot To Fly The Carrier Variant Of The F-35
On February 21, Royal Air Force (RAF) Squadron Leader Jim
Schofield became the United Kingdom’s first military test
pilot to fly the F-35C, the carrier variant of the Lightning II
Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft. Schofield’s flight is
the latest in a series of milestones for the UK’s Joint
Combat Aircraft program, which included the first F-35C launch on
the test electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) on November
18, 2011, and the rollout of the first UK F-35 from the production
line four days later.