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Image from Global Security
Image from Global Security
From The Danger Room:
A Joint Strike Fighter took off today for the first time with a U.S. Marine at the controls.
Maj. Joseph Bachmann, a Marine test pilot, flew an F-35A for an hour and 20 minutes from a Lockheed Martin facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The F-35 is supposed to enter operational service with the Marines in 2012; the service has already picked a cadre of instructor pilots to start training at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., this the summer.
The flight, Bachmann said, "was badass."
According to Bachmann, "The airplane literally leapt off the ground – it didn’t need much coaxing. All the maneuvers I asked it to do, it more than met."
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