First flight of the F-35B, the short take-off and vertical landing variant

The first F-35B took off conventionally at 10:17 Central time from the Fort Worth plant, with Graham Tomlinson — a BAE Systems pilot and former RAF Harrier flyer — at the controls. It climbed to 15,000 feet to check handling qualities, engine power variations and subsystems, landing forty-four minutes later. The lift fan was not used on this sortie: vertical-mode testing would come almost two years later.