(click pic for hi-res) Navy F-35C aircraft #'s CF-1 and CF-2 in formation flight
The first formation flying done by two of the Navy versions of the the Lightning II (F-35C) was completed recently as these sweet hi-res pix show. Plus, don't miss the video at the bottom of the post for the official Lockheed Martin footage of the event. I don't know about you, but I think those lightning bolts on the fins is one of the coolest graphic treatments on a fighter in a long time... it just looks hot!
And while there are loads of people out there beatin' up on the F-35, I'm still thinking it's all gonna work out fine. The world is very different than when an aircraft like the F-14 was developed. Everybody is an expert these days with an opinion that they think is worth listening to, and an internet connection to allow them to spout off. Did you know that the massively successful F-14 program actually lost the prototype aircraft on the second flight? Now there's a setback to come back from... and that's exactly what the people at Grumman did.
Today we know about program details than we honestly have no right to know about, and often we know them immediately, or nearly so. The truth is if you want a jet fighter that can fill three very different roles with one basic airframe platform, and you want it to have a stealth design, AND you want one of them to have VTOL capability... there's really only two words that can describe this: expensive and difficult. In my little tiny opinion, the F-35 program is doing just fine.
(click pic for hi-res) Navy F-35C variants in formation flight with the gear down