Lightning And Lightning II

Posted 17 March 2014
Photo by Todd R. McQueen

An F-35A Lightning II shared the sky with its World War II-era namesake, the P-38 Lightning on 19 March 2014 at the annual air show at Luke AFB, Arizona. Col. Todd Canterbury, Commander of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida, flew the F-35 while civilian pilot Steve Hinton flew the P-38, which is operated by Planes of Fame in Chino, California. Earlier this month, the 56th Fighter Wing at Luke celebrated the arrival of its first of 144 F-35As that will eventually be assigned there. More than 11,000 P-38s were built from 1939 through 1945, but only a handful remains in existence today. The first aircraft delivered to Luke was the 100th F-35 built so far.

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