Photo: USAF/Tech. Sgt. Nicolas Myers
They call them fifth-generation fighter planes, and between the major military powers of the world, namely the U.S., Russia, and China, there are just four of them in existence at the time of writing. Two of those four, the F-22s and F35s, proudly fly under the stars and stripes banner, and the people using them spare no expense when it comes to advertising their capabilities as often as they can.
Both the no-longer-in-production F-22 and the F-35 have their own demonstration teams, comprising skilled pilots that take these planes to air shows across the continent, showcasing what the perfect union between a skilled human and amazing technology can do.
In the case of the F-35, the demo team is led by Maj. Kristin Wolfe, and we’ve seen her and the plane she flies on more than one occasion in amazing instances, most recently when we got a glimpse of the F-35 she’s used to handling buzzing the CN Tower in Toronto.
USAF released another image of the F-35 recently, this time showing the same pilot-aircraft pair as it flies over Reno, Nevada, during the Air Races that were held there back in September.
And it’s a photo that presents the underbelly of the mighty machine in extreme detail, with every bulge and line of the beast fully exposed to the naked eye, and the afterburner of the Pratt & Whitney engine roaring hot and orange at the rear. And it looks simply spectacular, this fifth-gen fighter aircraft.
The F-35 was introduced by the American military 15 years ago, and since then it has flown, as a family, for over 400,000 hours. That milestone was reached back in July, and applies to all F-35s in the fleet: “developmental test aircraft, training, operational, U.S. and international F-35s.” And that includes the demo plane we have here.
In the case of the F-35, the demo team is led by Maj. Kristin Wolfe, and we’ve seen her and the plane she flies on more than one occasion in amazing instances, most recently when we got a glimpse of the F-35 she’s used to handling buzzing the CN Tower in Toronto.
USAF released another image of the F-35 recently, this time showing the same pilot-aircraft pair as it flies over Reno, Nevada, during the Air Races that were held there back in September.
And it’s a photo that presents the underbelly of the mighty machine in extreme detail, with every bulge and line of the beast fully exposed to the naked eye, and the afterburner of the Pratt & Whitney engine roaring hot and orange at the rear. And it looks simply spectacular, this fifth-gen fighter aircraft.
The F-35 was introduced by the American military 15 years ago, and since then it has flown, as a family, for over 400,000 hours. That milestone was reached back in July, and applies to all F-35s in the fleet: “developmental test aircraft, training, operational, U.S. and international F-35s.” And that includes the demo plane we have here.
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