Hobby Master Archive

The carrier variant of the F-35 is the F-35C Lightning II. Lockheed Martin F-35C 168842 MSN CF-11 first flew in December 2013 and was delivered to the USN on March 27, 2014. In April it was assigned to the VFA-101 “The Grim Reapers” as NJ-104. In November 2016 168842 was re-assigned to VX-9 “The Vampires” coded XE-105 as part of the Joint Operational Test Team at Edwards AFB, California. The Edwards AFB unit has six F-35Cs along with 130 personnel that subject these aircraft to operational flight testing.