FORT WORTH, Texas, June 8 (UPI) -- A Lockheed Martin and U.S. Navy team achieve a milestone for the F-35C Lightning II aircraft carrier variant fighter jet after its inaugural flight.
The F-35C Lightning II, a larger winged F-35 aircraft variant developed to support the Navy's long-range, stealth striking operations, took off from Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base and successfully completed its first flight.
Defense company Lockheed Martin's F-35C Lightning II is designed for deployment with the Navy's aircraft carriers. Officials said in a release the successful inaugural flight of the next-generation fighter aircraft opens a "new chapter in naval aviation."
The flight from the Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base lasted 57 minutes marking a milestone for the aircraft variant F-35 program.
"As a long-range, stealthy, carrier-based aircraft, the F-35C will provide naval aviators a fifth-generation fighter with the most advanced technology possible to perform our nation's missions," Vice Adm. Thomas Kilcline, Naval Air Forces commander, said in a statement.
The F-35C is expected to continue developmental flight testing in the summer.
