First flight of the F-35C, the U.S. Navy carrier variant

The first F-35C lifted off at 11:46 from Naval Air Station Fort Worth Joint Reserve Base and flew for fifty-seven minutes. At the controls was Jeff Knowles, a Lockheed Martin test pilot and retired naval aviator with operational experience on the F-14 and a stint as chief test pilot on the F-117 programme. Several secondary sources place the flight on the 7th, confusing it with the date of the press release, which describes the previous day's flight.