GORILLA FORCE: 58TH FIGHTER SQUADRON 'GORILLAS' MAKES PROGRESS WITH THE F-35

摘要

Lockheed Martin's Joint Strike Fighter program has had its fair of trials and tribulations, but genuine progress is now being achieved, and the US Air Force's 58th Fighter Squadron 'Gorillas' is at the forefront of service introduction of the F-35A model. IF AN AIRCRAFT has just one seat and you've never piloted it before, how do you become qualified not only to handle its controls but to instruct in it? They've worked that out at the 58th Fighter Squadron, the 'Gorillas', at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, the burgeoning unit that will create instructors and train new pilots in the F-35A Lightning II, the US Air Force's conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) version of the Joint Strike Fighter. Maj Jay Spohn, the assistant director for operations of the squadron and the first Air National Guard pilot to qualify in the F-35A, described the process of weaning oneself in to the F-35A cockpit.