F-35B LIGHTNING IIs Team with British AIRCRAFT CARRIER

摘要

Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray and Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Andy Edgell, both test pilots at the F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, were the first pilots to land the stealth F-35B fighter jets aboard HMS Queen Elizabeth. Gray was the first pilot to take off from the ship's ski ramp. The first landings and takeoffs from Queen Elizabeth are the culmination of a British endeavor lasting more than a decade to bring an aircraft carrier back to the U.K.'s arsenal. Able to embark up to 24 of the supersonic jets, the Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) carrier gives the Royal Navy a capability pos-sessed by few others.