Hobby Master Archive

In 2017 RAF and Royal Navy F-35B pilots would be trained by the No. 207 Squadron at RAF Markham. It wasn’t until July 16, 2019 that the first F-35s arrived and the F-35 Lightning Operational Conversion Unit stood up on August 1, 2019. The first batch of F-35s arrived in June 2018 with F-35B Lightning II ZM158 c/n 2BK0024 and two other aircraft as part of the fifth batch arrived on Thursday October 28, 2021. In February 2022 ZM158 was part of a fly past celebrating the 80th anniversary of the 8th Air Force.