00:38USA: F-35 FINALLY makes first landing aboard aircraft carrier
The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Monday when the F-35 Lighting II made its first arrested landing aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego.
The milestone comes nearly three years after the most expensive weapons programme in U.S. history failed to successfully land on an aircraft carrier, with a series of design flaws including a misplaced tail hook blamed for the failure.
The aircraft is one of three models developed for three foreign governments and eight partner countries and is part of a project originally expected to cost $1 trillion (€799,811,244), with the U.S. government expected to buy close to 2,500 of the models in total. The F-35 is considered to be in competition with the Chinese produced J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA, which will be introduced in late 2016 and is the successor to the MiG-29 and Su-27.
00:38The U.S. Navy made aviation history on Monday when the F-35 Lighting II made its first arrested landing aboard the USS Nimitz (CVN 68) aircraft carrier off the coast of San Diego.
The milestone comes nearly three years after the most expensive weapons programme in U.S. history failed to successfully land on an aircraft carrier, with a series of design flaws including a misplaced tail hook blamed for the failure.
The aircraft is one of three models developed for three foreign governments and eight partner countries and is part of a project originally expected to cost $1 trillion (€799,811,244), with the U.S. government expected to buy close to 2,500 of the models in total. The F-35 is considered to be in competition with the Chinese produced J-20 and the Russian Sukhoi T-50 PAK FA, which will be introduced in late 2016 and is the successor to the MiG-29 and Su-27.