Royal Air Force Squadron Leader Jim Schofield became the United Kingdom’s first military test pilot to fly the F-35C, the carrier variant of the Lightning II, on 21 February 2012. The flight, which took place at the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division test facility at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, was Flight 66 for aircraft CF-02. Schofield has now test flown by the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing and F-35C carrier variants of the F-35. The UK, which will fly both the B/C variants of the F-35, will operate the F-35C off the country’s new Queen Elizabeth-class carriers. The first production F-35B for the RAF is scheduled for delivery in late 2012.
