Above Ten Thousand
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Aviation and space timeline

The milestones of aerospace history, from the pioneers to today.

1900s
  • December 17, 1903

    Wright brothers’ first flight

    First flight — On December 17, 1903, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Orville Wright covered 120 feet in 12 seconds aboard the Flyer: the first controlled, sustained, powered flight in history.

  • July 25, 1909

    Blériot crosses the English Channel

    Record — On 25 July 1909 Louis Blériot flew the first Blériot XI across the English Channel, the first such crossing by a heavier-than-air aircraft. The feat made him a world figure overnight and secured the future of his aircraft manufacturing business. Its impact was captured by the British press headline declaring that Britain was no longer an island: the aeroplane had just erased a natural frontier.

1910s
  • 1917

    First flight of the Fokker V.4

    First flight — Fokker's first genuine triplane, the V.4, made its first flight in 1917. Its excessive control forces led to the next prototype, the V.5, the direct basis of the production Dr.I.

  • August 28, 1917

    Fokker F.I prototypes delivered to the front

    Milestone — Two F.I pre-production triplanes, closely based on the V.5, arrived at Markebeeke, Belgium, for combat evaluation with Jastas 10 and 11. Manfred von Richthofen first flew his on 1 September and scored his first two triplane victories in it.

  • November 2, 1917

    Dr.I fleet grounded after the Gontermann and Pastor crashes

    Institutional — After the in-flight upper-wing failure of two triplanes — Heinrich Gontermann's on 29 October and Günther Pastor's on 31 October 1917, both fatal — Idflieg grounded the entire in-service Dr.I fleet on 2 November pending an inquiry.

  • November 28, 1917

    Dr.I returns to service after wing reinforcement

    Institutional — After reinforcing the upper wing ribs and improving the waterproof varnish, Idflieg authorized the Dr.I's return to service on 28 November 1917; production resumed in early December.

  • April 21, 1918

    Death of Manfred von Richthofen

    Accident — German ace Manfred von Richthofen, the "Red Baron", was killed on 21 April 1918 while flying a Fokker Dr.I, the aircraft in which he had scored his final 17 victories.

  • June 1918

    Dr.I withdrawn from the front as the Fokker D.VII arrives

    Milestone — The Dr.I was withdrawn from front-line service as the new Fokker D.VII entered widespread service in June and July 1918; surviving triplanes were relegated to training and home-defence units.

  • June 25, 1919

    First flight of the Junkers F 13

    First flight — The Junkers F 13 flew for the first time on 1919-06-25.

1920s
1930s
  • 1933

    Service entry of the Boeing 247

    Milestone — The Boeing 247 entered service in 1933.

  • February 8, 1933

    First flight of the Boeing 247

    First flight — The Boeing 247 flew for the first time on 1933-02-08.

  • 1934

    Service entry of the Douglas DC-2

    Milestone — The Douglas DC-2 entered service in 1934.

  • May 11, 1934

    First flight of the Douglas DC-2

    First flight — The Douglas DC-2 flew for the first time on 1934-05-11.

  • August 8, 1934

    USAAC issues a specification for a multi-engine bomber

    Institutional — On 8 August 1934 the US Army Air Corps (USAAC) issued a proposal to replace the Martin B-10, requiring a useful bomb-load carried at 10,000 ft for 10 hours at a top speed of at least 200 mph, with a desired range of 2,000 miles. The contract would be decided by a fly-off at Wilbur Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, between Boeing's design, the Douglas DB-1 and the Martin Model 146 — the competition that produced the aircraft that became the B-17.

  • 1935

    Retirement of the Dornier Do X

    Milestone — The Dornier Do X was retired from service in 1935.

  • May 28, 1935

    First flight of the Messerschmitt Bf 109

    First flight — The Messerschmitt Bf 109 flew for the first time on 1935-05-28.

  • July 28, 1935

    First flight of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

    First flight — The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress flew for the first time on 1935-07-28.

  • July 28, 1935

    First flight of the Model 299, the B-17 prototype

    First flight — On 28 July 1935 the Model 299 — Boeing's company-funded prototype of what would become the B-17 — made its first flight in Seattle with chief test pilot Leslie Tower at the controls. The day before, a Seattle Times reporter had coined the nickname "Flying Fortress" after seeing the number of machine guns bristling from the fuselage. The aircraft combined features of the experimental XB-15 bomber and the Model 247 transport, powered by four Pratt & Whitney R-1690 Hornet engines.

  • October 30, 1935

    Model 299 crashes at Wright Field, giving rise to the pilot checklist

    Accident — On 30 October 1935, during a climb-rate evaluation flight, the Model 299 stalled and crashed shortly after takeoff from Wright Field, killing command pilot Major Ployer Peter Hill and, weeks later, Boeing test pilot Leslie Tower. The investigation found the control-surface gust lock had not been released; the accident — later summed up as "pilot error, not the machine's fault" — led directly to the modern written pre-flight checklist still used by pilots today. It also disqualified the Model 299 from the competition, which the Douglas B-18 went on to win.

  • 1936

    Service entry of the Short Empire

    Milestone — The Short Empire entered service in 1936.

  • March 5, 1936

    First flight of the Supermarine Spitfire

    First flight — The Supermarine Spitfire flew for the first time on 1936-03-05.

  • July 3, 1936

    First flight of the Short Empire

    First flight — The Short Empire flew for the first time on 1936-07-03.

  • 1937

    The Bf 109 enters combat with the Condor Legion in Spain

    Milestone — Dozens of Bf 109s (A through E variants) first saw active service with the Condor Legion in mid-1937, replacing the Heinkel He 51 biplane against Republican-flown Soviet Polikarpov I-15 and I-16 fighters. A total of 136 Bf 109s were sent to Spain; 47 of them remained in service with the Spanish Air Force after the war ended in 1939.

  • 1937

    Service entry of the Messerschmitt Bf 109

    Milestone — The Messerschmitt Bf 109 entered service in 1937.

  • March 1937

    The Y1B-17 enters service evaluation

    Milestone — Despite the Model 299 crash, on 17 January 1936 the Air Corps used a legal loophole to order 13 pre-production aircraft, designated Y1B-17. Between 1 March and 4 August 1937, 12 of them were delivered to the 2nd Bombardment Group at Langley Field, Virginia, for operational development and flight testing — including the widely publicized interception and photographing of the Italian ocean liner Rex 610 miles off the Atlantic coast, led by then-Lieutenant Curtis LeMay.

  • May 6, 1937

    Hindenburg disaster

    Accident — On 6 May 1937 the German commercial rigid airship LZ 129 Hindenburg caught fire and was destroyed while attempting to dock at Naval Air Station Lakehurst in Manchester Township, New Jersey. Filled with hydrogen, it was the lead ship of its class and the largest airship ever built by envelope volume. The accident killed 35 of the 97 people on board plus one person on the ground, and effectively ended the era of commercial passenger airship travel.

  • November 11, 1937

    World speed record of the Bf 109 V13

    Record — On 11 November 1937, the Bf 109 V13 (D-IPKY), flown by Messerschmitt's chief test pilot Dr. Hermann Wurster and powered by a 1,230 kW (1,672 PS) DB 601R racing engine, set a new world air speed record for landplanes with piston engines of 610.95 km/h — the first time Germany had set this record. Converted from a Bf 109D, the aircraft was registered by the FAI and contemporary publications as a Messerschmitt Bf 113 (or Bf 113R).

  • 1938

    Service entry of the Supermarine Spitfire

    Milestone — The Supermarine Spitfire entered service in 1938.

  • 1938

    Service entry of the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress

    Milestone — The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress entered service in 1938.

  • June 1, 1939

    First flight of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190

    First flight — The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 flew for the first time on 1939-06-01.

  • August 27, 1939

    First turbojet-powered flight (Heinkel He 178)

    First flight — On 27 August 1939 German test pilot Erich Warsitz took the Heinkel He 178 into the air, the world's first aircraft to fly on the thrust of a turbojet engine. Warsitz had already made the first flight of a liquid-fuelled rocket-powered aeroplane, the He 176, on 20 June of the same year. The He 178 opened the jet age that would dominate military and commercial aviation for the rest of the century.

  • December 29, 1939

    First flight of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator

    First flight — The Consolidated B-24 Liberator flew for the first time on 1939-12-29.

1940s
  • May 13, 1940

    First free flight of the Vought-Sikorsky VS-300

    First flight — On 13 May 1940 the VS-300, designed by Igor Sikorsky, made its first untethered free flight. With a single three-blade main rotor originally driven by a 75-horsepower engine, it was the first successful single-lifting-rotor helicopter in the United States and the first to counter torque with a vertical-plane tail rotor. That layout went on to become the industry standard for helicopters.

  • August 19, 1940

    First flight of the North American NA-62/B-25

    First flight — The NA-62 prototype, developed from the NA-40B to meet a USAAC requirement, made its first test flight at Inglewood, California, flown by Vance Breese with North American engineer Roy Ferren aboard. The flight revealed a Dutch roll tendency that led to the later gull-wing redesign.

  • August 31, 1940

    The Bf 109 in the Battle of Britain: 871 E-series fighters on strength

    Milestone — On 31 August 1940, at the height of the Battle of Britain, Luftwaffe fighter units (excluding JG 77) reported 375 Bf 109 E-1s, 125 E-3s, 339 E-4s and 32 E-7s on strength — 871 E-series fighters facing the RAF's Spitfires and Hurricanes.

  • October 26, 1940

    First flight of the NA-73X (P-51 Mustang)

    First flight — The NA-73X prototype, precursor of the P-51 Mustang, made its first flight on 26 October 1940 at Mines Field, North American Aviation's factory airfield in Inglewood, California, 149 days after the RAF contract was signed.

  • 1941

    B-25 enters service with the USAAF

    Milestone — The B-25 entered service with the United States Army Air Forces in early 1941, following the resolution of the stability issues found during the prototype's test flights.

  • 1941

    Service entry of the Consolidated B-24 Liberator

    Milestone — The Consolidated B-24 Liberator entered service in 1941.

  • 1941

    Service entry of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190

    Milestone — The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 entered service in 1941.

  • January 9, 1941

    First flight of the Avro Lancaster

    First flight — The Avro Lancaster flew for the first time on 1941-01-09.

  • December 8, 1941

    Attack on Clark Field and first B-17 missions in the Pacific

    Accident — On the same day as the Pearl Harbor attack (8 December, Philippine time), Japanese aircraft destroyed much of the Far East Air Force's 35 B-17s on the ground at Clark Field, after a chain of contradictory decisions delayed authorization for a counterstrike. Days earlier, on 7 December, a flight of 12 B-17s transiting to the Philippines had arrived over Pearl Harbor in the middle of the attack. On 10 December, Lieutenant Colin Kelly became a war hero after holding his burning B-17 steady so his crew could bail out near Clark Field.

  • 1942

    Service entry of the Douglas DC-4

    Milestone — The Douglas DC-4 entered service in 1942.

  • 1942

    The C-87 Liberator Express and the "Hump" route

    Milestone — Derived from the B-24 Liberator, the C-87 Liberator Express transport flew from 1942 on the dangerous "Hump" route over the Himalayas, carrying supplies from India to China after Japan cut the Burma Road. B-24 bomber units also operated in the China-Burma-India theater during the war.

  • January 1942

    RAF service entry of the Mustang

    Milestone — The first squadron equipped with the Mustang Mk I, No. 26 Squadron RAF, entered service in January 1942, following the arrival of the initial aircraft in the UK in October 1941.

  • 1942

    Service entry of the Avro Lancaster

    Milestone — The Avro Lancaster entered service in 1942.

  • 1942

    Service entry of the North American P-51 Mustang

    Milestone — The North American P-51 Mustang entered service in 1942.

  • February 14, 1942

    First flight of the Douglas DC-4

    First flight — The Douglas DC-4 flew for the first time on 1942-02-14.

  • April 18, 1942

    Doolittle Raid

    Milestone — Sixteen B-25B bombers, each with a crew of five, launched from the aircraft carrier USS Hornet in the Pacific Ocean to bomb military and industrial targets in Japan, without fighter escort, continuing afterward toward China. The raid caused limited material damage but had a major psychological effect on both sides.

  • August 17, 1942

    Eighth Air Force's first heavy bomber mission over Europe

    Milestone — On 17 August 1942, twelve B-17Es of the 97th Bomb Group — lead aircraft flown by Major Paul Tibbets, with Brigadier General Ira Eaker aboard as observer — attacked the Rouen-Sotteville railway marshalling yards escorted by RAF Spitfires. It was the Eighth Air Force's first heavy bomber mission over occupied Europe, just three months after the group had arrived in England.

  • September 21, 1942

    First flight of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress

    First flight — The Boeing B-29 Superfortress flew for the first time on 1942-09-21.

  • 1943

    The B-24 Liberator as the primary heavy bomber in the Pacific

    Milestone — From 1943, the B-24 Liberator became the primary heavy bomber of US Army Air Forces in the Pacific theater, serving with the Fifth, Seventh, Tenth and Fourteenth Air Forces on strategic bombing, maritime patrol and photo-reconnaissance missions against Japanese targets.

  • 1943

    The B-24 Liberator and closing the Mid-Atlantic Gap

    Milestone — Very Long Range (VLR) versions of the B-24 Liberator, together with the naval PB4Y variants, gave the Allies their first air cover over the Mid-Atlantic Gap, the stretch of ocean where German U-boats had previously operated free of aerial threat. Liberators were credited with sinking, in whole or in part, 93 U-boats over the course of the anti-submarine campaign.

  • March 2, 1943

    Battle of the Bismarck Sea

    Milestone — Between 2 and 4 March 1943, Fifth Air Force B-25s, together with A-20 Havocs, used low-altitude skip bombing against a Japanese convoy in the Bismarck Sea off New Guinea, after earlier medium-altitude horizontal bombing had proven ineffective against moving ships.

  • May 1943

    B-25G with 75 mm cannon enters service

    Milestone — In May 1943, the Air Corps accepted the B-25G series, armed with a 75 mm M4 cannon in the nose for use against ships and hardened ground targets, the first production Mitchell variant to carry this weapon.

  • May 17, 1943

    Operation Chastise: the Dambusters raid

    Milestone — In the early hours of 17 May 1943, nineteen specially modified Lancasters of No. 617 Squadron RAF, led by Guy Gibson, attacked the Ruhr dams with Barnes Wallis's Upkeep bouncing bomb. The Möhne and Eder dams were breached; the raid cost eight aircraft and earned the squadron its nickname: the Dambusters.

  • August 1, 1943

    Operation Tidal Wave: the low-level raid on Ploiești

    Milestone — On 1 August 1943, 178 USAAF B-24 Liberators took off from Benghazi, Libya, to strike the Ploiești oil refineries in Romania at low level; the complex supplied roughly a third of the Axis war machine's fuel. The mission, codenamed Tidal Wave, cost 53 aircraft and more than 300 airmen killed or missing, and refinery output recovered within weeks. Five crew members received the Medal of Honor.

  • August 17, 1943

    Schweinfurt–Regensburg mission

    Milestone — On 17 August 1943 the Eighth Air Force launched a double strike against the Schweinfurt ball-bearing works and the Regensburg fighter plant. Of the 230 B-17s that attacked Schweinfurt, roughly 300 Luftwaffe fighters shot down 36, without inflicting decisive damage on the factories — an early demonstration of the cost of deep raids into Germany without long-range fighter escort.

  • October 14, 1943

    "Black Thursday": second raid on Schweinfurt

    Accident — On 14 October 1943 a renewed attack on Schweinfurt became known as "Black Thursday": of 291 attacking B-17s, 60 were shot down over Germany, 5 crashed on approach to Britain and 12 more were written off, a loss of 77 aircraft, with 122 more bombers damaged. The heaviest blow the Eighth Air Force had yet suffered forced a halt to unescorted deep-penetration raids until long-range fighters became available.

  • 1944

    Operation Aphrodite: B-17s converted into flying bombs

    Other — At least 25 war-weary B-17s were fitted with radio control and 20,000 lb of Torpex high explosive and designated BQ-7 "Aphrodite missiles", intended to strike bombing-resistant German bunkers such as U-boat pens and V-1 launch sites. A "mothership" aircraft radio-guided the unmanned drone to its target after the skeleton crew that got it airborne had bailed out.

  • February 20, 1944

    Big Week and the arrival of the P-51 as a long-range escort

    Milestone — Between 20 and 25 February 1944 — with a renewed raid on Schweinfurt on the 24th as its centrepiece — "Big Week" turned Allied bombing against the German aircraft industry. Republic P-47s and, above all, the new North American P-51 Mustang, fitted with drop tanks that extended their range, could finally escort the B-17s all the way to the target and back, inflicting attrition the Luftwaffe could no longer replace.

  • March 1944

    Mustangs escort bombers over Berlin

    Milestone — From early 1944 the US Eighth Air Force's P-51s escorted heavy bombers on raids over Germany, including Berlin, helping to cripple the Luftwaffe's fighter arm. Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring, its commander, was quoted as saying: "When I saw Mustangs over Berlin, I knew the jig was up."

  • April 1944

    Willow Run reaches one B-24 Liberator every 63 minutes

    Institutional — In April 1944, Ford's Willow Run plant in Michigan reached its peak B-24 Liberator production rate: two nine-hour shifts, six days a week, turned out 453 aircraft in 468 hours — an average of one completed B-24 every 63 minutes, and up to 650 units a month at its height.

  • November 12, 1944

    Sinking of the battleship Tirpitz

    Milestone — On 12 November 1944, Lancasters of Nos. 617 and 9 Squadrons RAF sank the German battleship Tirpitz off Håkøya island near Tromsø, Norway, with 12,000 lb Tallboy bombs in Operation Catechism, removing Germany's greatest surface threat to the Arctic convoys.

  • 1945

    The PB-1W brings airborne early warning radar to the US Navy

    Other — After the war, the Naval Aircraft Modification Unit (NAMU) at Johnsville, Pennsylvania, converted a number of B-17s into PB-1Ws, sealing the bomb-bay doors and fitting an under-fuselage search radome along with extra drop tanks. Painted in the standard dark-blue scheme adopted in late 1944, the PB-1Ws served the US Navy as an airborne early warning platform until 1955, when they began to be replaced by the Lockheed WV-2.

  • April 29, 1945

    Operation Manna: food from the Lancasters

    Milestone — Between 29 April and 7 May 1945, Bomber Command Lancasters dropped thousands of tonnes of food at low level over the still-occupied Netherlands under a truce agreed with German forces, relieving the Dutch «Hunger Winter» famine.

  • June 28, 1945

    End of B-24 Liberator production

    Milestone — On 28 June 1945, the last of 18,482 B-24 Liberators built rolled off Ford's Willow Run production line, ending series production of the bomber after the contract was cancelled in late May of that year.

  • July 28, 1945

    End of B-17 production

    Milestone — The last B-17 — the 8,680th built under licence by Lockheed (Vega) — rolled off the line on 28 July 1945. Counting combined production by Boeing, Douglas and Vega, 12,731 airframes had been built since 1935.

  • February 15, 1946

    First flight of the Douglas DC-6

    First flight — The Douglas DC-6 flew for the first time on 1946-02-15.

  • 1947

    Retirement of the Short Empire

    Milestone — The Short Empire was retired from service in 1947.

  • 1947

    Service entry of the Douglas DC-6

    Milestone — The Douglas DC-6 entered service in 1947.

  • July 8, 1947

    First flight of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

    First flight — The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser flew for the first time on 1947-07-08.

  • October 1947

    Yeager breaks the sound barrier (Bell X-1)

    Milestone — In October 1947 test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first aviator confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight. He did so aboard rocket-powered Bell X-1 number 46-062, nicknamed "Glamorous Glennis", built by Bell Aircraft for a joint NACA, Army Air Forces and USAF research project. The X-1 was the first of the American X-planes series of experimental research aircraft.

  • 1948

    Mil Mi-1 first flight

    First flight — In 1948 the Mil Mi-1 flew for the first time as the first Soviet production helicopter. It opened mass helicopter production in the USSR.

  • 1949

    Service entry of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

    Milestone — The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser entered service in 1949.

  • 1949

    Retirement of the Focke-Wulf Fw 190

    Milestone — The Focke-Wulf Fw 190 was retired from service in 1949.

  • July 27, 1949

    De Havilland Comet first flight

    First flight — On July 27, 1949 the de Havilland Comet took off from Hatfield as the first commercial jet airliner in history. Its maiden flight opened the jet transport era.

1950s
1960s
1970s
  • 1970

    Service entry of the Boeing 747

    Milestone — The Boeing 747 entered service in 1970.

  • March 26, 1971

    First flight of the CASA C-212 Aviocar

    First flight — The CASA C-212 Aviocar flew for the first time on 1971-03-26.

  • 1972

    Service entry of the Fairchild Metroliner

    Milestone — The Fairchild Metroliner entered service in 1972.

  • May 10, 1972

    First flight of the Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II

    First flight — The Fairchild Republic A-10 Thunderbolt II flew for the first time on 1972-05-10.

  • December 18, 1972

    Operation Linebacker II: the final US bombing campaign over North Vietnam

    Milestone — Between 18 and 29 December 1972, B-52s deployed at Andersen Air Force Base (Guam, 153 aircraft) and U-Tapao Royal Thai Naval Airfield (Thailand, 54 B-52Ds) attacked Hanoi and Haiphong at night in three-bomber cells. 741 sorties were dispatched, of which 729 completed their mission, dropping roughly 15,237 tons of bombs in the largest heavy bomber strikes since World War II.

  • 1973

    Service entry of the Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante

    Milestone — The Embraer EMB 110 Bandeirante entered service in 1973.

  • 1974

    Service entry of the CASA C-212 Aviocar

    Milestone — The CASA C-212 Aviocar entered service in 1974.

  • January 20, 1974

    Accidental liftoff of the YF-16 during a high-speed taxi test

    First flight — During a high-speed taxi test at Edwards AFB, a roll-control oscillation caused the YF-16 to become airborne unintentionally; the pilot completed a six-minute flight and landed without further incident.

  • February 2, 1974

    Official first flight of the YF-16

    First flight — The YF-16 made its official 90-minute maiden flight at the Air Force Flight Test Center, Edwards AFB, California, after the slight damage from the 20 January accidental liftoff was repaired.

  • January 13, 1975

    YF-16 selected as winner of the Air Combat Fighter competition over the YF-17

    Milestone — Secretary of the Air Force John L. McLucas announced the YF-16 as the winner of the Air Combat Fighter competition, citing its lower operating costs, greater range, and better maneuver performance than the YF-17.

  • March 7, 1975

    First flight of the Yakovlev Yak-42

    First flight — The Yakovlev Yak-42 flew for the first time on 1975-03-07.

  • June 7, 1975

    European Participation Air Forces (EPAF) consortium agreement signed for F-16 production

    Institutional — Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, now known as the European Participation Air Forces, signed the agreement to acquire and co-produce the F-16 to replace their F-104G fleets.

  • July 20, 1976

    Viking 1 lands on Mars

    Space milestone — On 20 July 1976 the Viking 1 lander touched down on Mars, becoming the first fully successful Mars lander in history. It was part of NASA's Viking programme, made up of two spacecraft each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. It operated for 2,307 days, or 2,245 Martian solar days, the longest extraterrestrial surface mission until the record was broken by the Opportunity rover on 19 May 2010.

  • December 22, 1976

    First flight of the Ilyushin Il-86

    First flight — The Ilyushin Il-86 flew for the first time on 1976-12-22.

  • March 27, 1977

    Tenerife airport disaster

    Accident — On 27 March 1977 two Boeing 747 passenger jets collided on the runway at Los Rodeos Airport on the Spanish island of Tenerife. The crash killed 583 people and injured 61 others, making it the deadliest accident in aviation history. It prompted a wholesale review of radio phraseology, cockpit communication and runway procedures.

  • September 5, 1977

    Launch of Voyager 1

    Space launch — NASA launched the Voyager 1 probe on 5 September 1977 as part of the Voyager programme, to study the outer Solar System and the interstellar space beyond the Sun's heliosphere. It lifted off 16 days after its twin, Voyager 2. It still communicates through NASA's Deep Space Network and is the most distant human-made object from Earth, at 172.59 astronomical units as of March 2026.

  • October 6, 1977

    MiG-29 first flight

    First flight — On October 6, 1977 MiG-29 prototype 9-01 made its maiden flight with Alexander Fedotov at the controls.

  • 1978

    Retirement of the Boeing 377 Stratocruiser

    Milestone — The Boeing 377 Stratocruiser was retired from service in 1978.

  • August 17, 1978

    F-16 enters USAF service

    Milestone — The F-16 entered service with the U.S. Air Force, becoming a mainstay of its tactical airpower from that point on.

1980s
1990s
  • April 24, 1990

    Deployment of the Hubble Space Telescope (STS-31)

    Space launch — On 24 April 1990 the orbiter Discovery lifted off from Launch Complex 39B at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on mission STS-31. Its primary purpose was to deploy the Hubble Space Telescope into low Earth orbit, an instrument named after astronomer Edwin Hubble and one of NASA's Great Observatories. It was the 35th mission of the Space Shuttle programme and the tenth flight of Discovery.

  • 1991

    F-16 sees combat in Operation Desert Storm

    Milestone — USAF, Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard units flew the F-16 in combat during Operation Desert Storm.

  • December 6, 1991

    First flight of the Dornier 328

    First flight — The Dornier 328 flew for the first time on 1991-12-06.

  • 1992

    Service entry of the Ilyushin Il-96

    Milestone — The Ilyushin Il-96 entered service in 1992.

  • March 26, 1992

    First flight of the Saab 2000

    First flight — The Saab 2000 flew for the first time on 1992-03-26.

  • 1993

    Retirement of the Convair 880

    Milestone — The Convair 880 was retired from service in 1993.

  • 1993

    Service entry of the Dornier 328

    Milestone — The Dornier 328 entered service in 1993.

  • December 17, 1993

    Delivery of the first Northrop B-2 Spirit to Whiteman

    Milestone — The first production B-2A Spirit, «Spirit of Missouri» (tail number 88-0329), landed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, on 17 December 1993, marking the start of the bomber's first operational unit within Strategic Air Command.

  • 1994

    Service entry of the Saab 2000

    Milestone — The Saab 2000 entered service in 1994.

  • January 27, 1994

    JAST program office chartered, the administrative origin of the F-35

    Institutional — The U.S. Department of Defense signed the founding charter of the Joint Advanced Strike Technology (JAST) program office, tasked with maturing the airframe, sensor and weapons technologies that would underpin a future tactical fighter common to the Air Force, the Navy and the Marine Corps. That remit became, about eighteen months later, the programme renamed Joint Strike Fighter, and from it the F-35 Lightning II. The office also took in the work of the earlier ASTOVL and CALF efforts, which had been exploring a supersonic replacement for the Harrier.

  • 1995

    Retirement of the Convair 990 Coronado

    Milestone — The Convair 990 Coronado was retired from service in 1995.

  • 1996

    Retirement of the Vickers Vanguard

    Milestone — The Vickers Vanguard was retired from service in 1996.

  • November 16, 1996

    Boeing and Lockheed Martin selected for the Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration phase

    Institutional — Defense Secretary William J. Perry announced at the Pentagon that Boeing and Lockheed Martin would be the two contractors for the Joint Strike Fighter concept demonstration phase. Lockheed Martin received a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract worth 718.8 million dollars for the X-35 and Boeing one of roughly 661.8 million for the X-32. Each team was to build two demonstrators able to validate all three intended developments: conventional take-off and landing, short take-off and vertical landing, and carrier operation.

  • 1997

    Retirement of the Bristol Britannia

    Milestone — The Bristol Britannia was retired from service in 1997.

  • 1997

    Service entry of the Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit

    Milestone — The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit entered service in 1997.

  • September 2, 1998

    First flight of the Boeing 717

    First flight — The Boeing 717 flew for the first time on 1998-09-02.

  • November 20, 1998

    Launch of Zarya, first module of the International Space Station

    Space launch — On 20 November 1998 a Proton-K rocket placed Zarya, also known as the Functional Cargo Block, into orbit as the first module of the International Space Station. In the station's early years it supplied power, propulsion and guidance; as the ISS grew, its role shifted mainly to storage, including its external fuel tanks. A descendant of the TKS spacecraft from the Salyut programme, it was built in Russia but financed by the United States, and its name means "sunrise".

  • 1999

    Service entry of the Boeing 717

    Milestone — The Boeing 717 entered service in 1999.

  • 1999

    Retirement of the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird

    Milestone — The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird was retired from service in 1999.

  • 1999

    Retirement of the Handley Page Herald

    Milestone — The Handley Page Herald was retired from service in 1999.

  • March 24, 1999

    First combat use of the B-2 Spirit over Kosovo

    Milestone — In the early hours of 24 March 1999, two B-2 Spirits took off from Whiteman Air Force Base and struck targets in Serbia with GPS-Aided Munitions, opening Operation Allied Force over Kosovo. It was the type's first combat use and, with a round trip of more than 30 hours without shutting down the engines, the longest manned combat mission flown up to that point.

2000s
  • October 24, 2000

    First flight of the X-35A demonstrator

    First flight — The X-35A, the first of Lockheed Martin's two demonstrators for the Joint Strike Fighter competition, lifted off at 09:06 Pacific time from Air Force Plant 42 at Palmdale, California, with test pilot Tom Morgenfeld at the controls. It used a little over 2,000 feet of runway and landed uneventfully at Edwards Air Force Base. The flight opened the test campaign that would pit the X-35 against Boeing's X-32.

  • November 22, 2000

    The X-35A completes its conventional test programme

    Milestone — The X-35A wrapped up its conventional-configuration test programme in barely a month and returned to the Palmdale plant. There it was stripped and reconfigured with the shaft-driven lift fan to be reborn as the X-35B, the demonstrator for the short take-off and vertical landing variant. Reusing the same airframe was one of the Lockheed Martin team's bets for keeping the demonstration affordable.

  • December 16, 2000

    First flight of the X-35C, the carrier-variant demonstrator

    First flight — Test pilot Joe Sweeney, a former Navy attack aviator, took off at 09:23 Pacific time from Lockheed Martin's Palmdale plant and flew for twenty-seven minutes, climbing to 10,000 feet and accelerating to 250 knots before landing at Edwards. The X-35C was distinguished by a larger wing and control surfaces and by structure reinforced for catapult launch and arrested recovery. Its campaign concentrated on handling qualities in the carrier approach.

  • January 17, 2001

    The United Kingdom signs the memorandum making it a tier-one JSF partner

    Institutional — The United Kingdom signed a memorandum of understanding with the United States to take part in the Joint Strike Fighter's system development and demonstration phase, contributing two billion dollars. It was the only country admitted as a tier-one partner, with a say in the aircraft's requirements, a status tied to its need to replace the Sea Harrier and Harrier GR7. The signature came nine months before the competition's winner was known.

  • June 23, 2001

    The X-35B makes the first vertical take-off and landing with a shaft-driven lift fan

    Milestone — The X-35B, flown by BAE Systems pilot Simon Hargreaves, took off and landed vertically for the first time, debuting in flight the lift fan driven by a shaft from the engine. The system produced close to 40,000 pounds of lift and vindicated the concept Lockheed Martin had championed against Boeing's direct-lift arrangement. The flight opened the demonstrator's intensive STOVL test phase, its conventional flight requirements having already been met as the X-35A.

  • July 20, 2001

    "Mission X": short take-off, supersonic dash and vertical landing in a single X-35B sortie

    Record — Marine Corps Major Art Tomassetti performed an automatic short take-off at 80 knots, converted the propulsion system to conventional mode in flight, climbed to 25,000 feet and accelerated to Mach 1.05 before returning for a vertical landing. It was the first time a single aircraft had strung together a short take-off, a supersonic dash and a vertical landing in one mission. The demonstration, dubbed "Mission X", settled the underlying doubt about the feasibility of a supersonic STOVL fighter and weighed on the competition verdict three months later.

  • October 26, 2001

    Lockheed Martin wins the Joint Strike Fighter competition

    Institutional — The Pentagon announced that the team led by Lockheed Martin, with Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems, had beaten Boeing's and would proceed into the Joint Strike Fighter system development and demonstration phase. The initial contract, worth some 18.9 billion dollars, covered the first twenty-two development aircraft. The full programme was estimated at the time at more than 3,000 aircraft for three U.S. services and several foreign partners.

  • February 1, 2003

    Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

    Accident — On 1 February 2003 the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere over Texas and Louisiana, killing all seven astronauts on board. It was the second of two Space Shuttle missions to end in disaster, after the loss of Challenger and its crew in 1986. The accident set the Shuttle programme on the path to retirement.

  • June 21, 2004

    SpaceShipOne: first private crewed spaceflight

    Space milestone — On 21 June 2004 pilot Mike Melvill took the experimental spaceplane SpaceShipOne past the edge of space on flight 15P, becoming the first commercial astronaut and the 435th person to reach space. The air-launched, hybrid-rocket-powered craft was developed by Mojave Aerospace Ventures, a joint venture between Paul Allen and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites. Later that year SpaceShipOne won the US$10 million Ansari X Prize and was immediately retired from active service.

  • December 17, 2004

    First flight of the Antonov An-148

    First flight — The Antonov An-148 flew for the first time on 2004-12-17.

  • April 27, 2005

    First flight of the Airbus A380

    First flight — The Airbus A380 flew for the first time on 2005-04-27.

  • February 19, 2006

    The first F-35A, AA-1, rolls off the Fort Worth assembly line

    Milestone — The first example of the new fighter, the test aircraft AA-1, rolled off the Lockheed Martin Aeronautics assembly line at Fort Worth, Texas. Part fabrication had begun in 2004 and final assembly in May 2005, after the design revision that followed the concept demonstration phase. AA-1 did not yet represent the production configuration: it would serve chiefly to open the flight envelope.

  • July 7, 2006

    The F-35 is officially named "Lightning II"

    Institutional — At the public rollout ceremony held in Fort Worth, the U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff, General Michael Moseley, announced that the F-35 would be named "Lightning II". The name honoured two aircraft: the Lockheed P-38 Lightning of the Second World War and Britain's English Electric Lightning, a nod to the United Kingdom's role as a tier-one partner in the programme.

  • December 15, 2006

    First flight of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

    First flight — The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II flew for the first time on 2006-12-15.

  • 2007

    Service entry of the Airbus A380

    Milestone — The Airbus A380 entered service in 2007.

  • February 23, 2008

    Loss of the B-2 Spirit «Spirit of Kansas» at Guam

    Accident — On 23 February 2008 the B-2 «Spirit of Kansas» (89-0127), of the 393rd Bomb Squadron, crashed on the runway seconds after takeoff from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, after moisture in its air data sensors fed the flight control computers bad information, triggering an abrupt pitch-up and stall. Both pilots ejected and survived; it was the first operational loss of a B-2 and, with the aircraft destroyed, the costliest aviation accident in history to that date.

  • June 11, 2008

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

    First flight — 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.

  • November 20, 2008

    Norway recommends the F-35 over Sweden's Gripen

    Institutional — The Norwegian government announced it was recommending to the Storting the purchase of up to forty-eight F-35As to replace its F-16s, having rejected the Saab Gripen NG in the evaluation. The decision drew protests in Sweden, which questioned the cost comparison Oslo had used. Norway was the first European programme partner to formally settle on the aircraft.

  • November 28, 2008

    First flight of the COMAC ARJ21

    First flight — The COMAC ARJ21 flew for the first time on 2008-11-28.

  • 2009

    Service entry of the Antonov An-148

    Milestone — The Antonov An-148 entered service in 2009.

2010s
  • January 29, 2010

    First flight of the Sukhoi T-50 (future Su-57)

    First flight — The first prototype, T-50-1, made its maiden flight on 29 January 2010 from Dzemgi airfield in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, flown by test pilot Sergei Bogdan. The roughly 47-minute flight served as a preliminary assessment of the aircraft's handling, engine and main systems, including the landing gear, and proceeded according to the planned programme.

  • March 18, 2010

    First vertical landing of an F-35B at Patuxent River

    Milestone — Test aircraft BF-01, again flown by Graham Tomlinson, made a short take-off at 80 knots at 13:09 Eastern time and thirteen minutes later brought the aircraft to a hover 150 feet above the airfield at Naval Air Station Patuxent River. It held the hover for about a minute and descended onto a marked 95-foot landing spot. The shaft-driven lift fan system delivered more than 41,000 pounds of vertical thrust during the manoeuvre.

  • June 6, 2010

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

    First flight — 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.

  • July 16, 2010

    Canada announces its intention to buy 65 F-35A

    Institutional — The Canadian government announced its intention to acquire sixty-five F-35As to replace its CF-18 Hornets, without a competition. The decision opened a controversy lasting more than a decade over the programme's real cost, leading to the purchase being cancelled in 2012, the process reopened, and the same aircraft finally chosen again in 2023.

  • October 7, 2010

    Israel signs the letter of offer and acceptance for its first 20 F-35

    Institutional — Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak signed the letter of offer and acceptance for twenty F-35As, the programme's first export contract through foreign military sales. The deal included the integration of Israeli systems into the airframe, a concession the United States granted to no other customer and which gave rise to the F-35I "Adir" variant.

  • July 14, 2011

    First production F-35 delivered to the U.S. Air Force at Eglin

    Milestone — The first production F-35 assigned to a unit, AF-9 of the 33rd Fighter Wing, arrived at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida at 13:18 Central time. The aircraft was earmarked for the integrated F-35 training centre the base had just stood up, whose first pilot and maintainer courses began that autumn. It was the first delivery of a series aircraft after five years of development flying.

  • August 17, 2011

    Public debut of the T-50 at MAKS 2011

    Milestone — The T-50 made its first public flight demonstration on 17 August 2011 at the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky, near Moscow, in front of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and other attendees. The pilots performed no aerobatics since the aircraft was still undergoing flight testing, and during the show one of the two prototypes present suffered a starboard engine compressor stall during its takeoff roll.

  • October 3, 2011

    The F-35B lands aboard a ship for the first time: sea trials on USS Wasp

    Milestone — Test aircraft BF-2, flown by Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Fred Schenk, made the first vertical landing onto a ship's deck, that of the amphibious assault ship USS Wasp, off the Virginia coast. The campaign ran for eighteen days, during which two aircraft, BF-2 and BF-4, completed seventy-two short take-offs and seventy-two vertical landings, meeting every planned shipboard envelope-expansion objective.

  • December 19, 2011

    Japan selects the F-35A in the F-X competition

    Institutional — Japan's Security Council selected the F-35A as winner of the F-X competition, with an initial order of forty-two aircraft to replace its F-4EJ Phantom IIs. The Lightning II beat the Eurofighter Typhoon and the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The agreement provided for part of the production to be assembled in Japan by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

  • May 10, 2012

    The United Kingdom reverts to the F-35B after trying to switch to the F-35C

    Institutional — British Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told the Commons that the United Kingdom was reverting to the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B, reversing the 2010 strategic review decision to buy the F-35C. The reason was the cost of fitting catapults and arresting gear to the Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, which had doubled against forecasts. The U-turn locked in the ships' ski-jump flight-deck design.

  • 2013

    Retirement of the Vickers VC10

    Milestone — The Vickers VC10 was retired from service in 2013.

  • September 17, 2013

    The Netherlands select the F-35A with a plan for 37 aircraft

    Institutional — The Dutch government confirmed the purchase of thirty-seven F-35As to replace its F-16s, as part of the defence budget presented that day. The decision closed years of political debate in which cheaper alternatives had been evaluated and the aircraft's noise had been a recurring argument. The Netherlands had been in the programme since its development phase.

  • March 24, 2014

    South Korea selects the F-35A for its F-X III programme

    Institutional — South Korea's defence procurement agency DAPA approved the purchase of forty F-35As, with an option on twenty more, closing the F-X III programme. The decision came after the country ruled out the Boeing F-15SE, which had been the only bidder within budget, on the grounds that it was not a fifth-generation aircraft. South Korea became the Lightning II's third foreign military sales customer.

  • April 23, 2014

    Australia confirms 58 more F-35A, raising its order to 72

    Institutional — Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced approval for fifty-eight additional F-35As, taking the country's total order to seventy-two aircraft and three operational squadrons. The purchase, worth around 12.4 billion Australian dollars, was intended to replace the classic F/A-18A/B Hornets. Australia had been in the programme since 2002.

  • June 23, 2014

    First major damage to an F-35: engine fire at Eglin

    Accident — An F-35A of the 58th Fighter Squadron suffered a fire in its rear section during take-off at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. The pilot aborted the roll and evacuated the aircraft unhurt, but the damage exceeded fifty million dollars and forced a fleet-wide flight suspension. The investigation traced the failure to a fractured F135 engine blade caused by rubbing against its stator.

  • November 3, 2014

    First arrested landing of an F-35C aboard a carrier, USS Nimitz

    Milestone — Commander Tony Wilson set test aircraft CF-03 down on the deck of the carrier USS Nimitz at 12:18, off the coast of San Diego, in the carrier variant's first arrested landing. CF-05 repeated the feat the same day. The two aircraft of the Patuxent River integrated test force then strung together a series of catapult launches, touch-and-goes and arrested landings within a campaign planned to last two weeks.

  • 2015

    Service entry of the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

    Milestone — The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II entered service in 2015.

  • March 12, 2015

    The first F-35A assembled outside the United States rolls out at Cameri

    Milestone — AL-1, the first Italian F-35A, rolled off the line at the final assembly and check-out facility at Cameri, near Novara. It was the first Lightning II built outside the United States and the effective start-up of a second line, intended to serve other European customers as well. Italy had pushed for the facility as the industrial return on its participation in the programme.

  • July 31, 2015

    The U.S. Marine Corps declares the F-35B operational

    Milestone — The United States Marine Corps declared initial operational capability for the F-35B after a five-day operational readiness inspection. The reference unit was fighter attack squadron VMFA-121 "Green Knights", with ten Block 2B aircraft based at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Arizona. It was the first service in the world to declare the Lightning II operational, almost nine years after the prototype's first flight.

  • September 7, 2015

    First flight of an F-35 outside the United States

    Milestone — Italian F-35A AL-1 made its maiden flight from Cameri with Bill Gigliotti at the controls, the first by a Lightning II outside U.S. territory. The sortie validated the work of the European assembly line, which until then had only shown it could build the aircraft, not fly it off. Italy thus became the second country able to produce and test the airframe.

  • 2016

    Service entry of the COMAC ARJ21

    Milestone — The COMAC ARJ21 entered service in 2016.

  • May 23, 2016

    The first Dutch F-35s touch Netherlands soil

    Milestone — The two Dutch F-35A test aircraft, AN-1 and AN-2, landed at Leeuwarden air base for a temporary stay of noise measurement and public display. This was not yet a permanent detachment: the aircraft later returned to the United States, where training and testing continued. The visit served above all to gauge the new fighter's acoustic footprint in a country where the noise debate weighed on the political decision.

  • June 9, 2016

    Danish Folketing agreement to buy 27 F-35A

    Institutional — The main parties in the Danish Folketing reached an agreement to acquire twenty-seven F-35As to replace the F-16s, endorsing the government's May recommendation. The Lightning II had beaten the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Super Hornet in an evaluation scoring strategic capability, industrial risk and life-cycle cost. Denmark had been a programme partner since 2002.

  • August 2, 2016

    The U.S. Air Force declares the F-35A operational

    Milestone — General Herbert Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command, signed the declaration of initial operational capability for the F-35A. The first operational squadron was the 34th Fighter Squadron of the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, activated in its new role two weeks earlier. The formal ceremony was held at the base three days after the signature.

  • September 23, 2016

    A pilot ejects from a burning F-35A at Mountain Home

    Accident — An F-35A of the 61st Fighter Squadron, deployed from Luke Air Force Base, caught fire on the ground while preparing for take-off at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho. The pilot ejected and suffered minor injuries. The cause was a misrouted battery cooling duct that vented hot air into the weapons bay.

  • December 12, 2016

    Italy's first two operational F-35A arrive at Amendola

    Milestone — The first two F-35A assigned to an Italian operational unit landed at Amendola air base in Apulia, for the 13th Gruppo of the 32nd Stormo. With them Italy became the first country outside the United States to operate the Lightning II from a base of its own. The aircraft came from the Cameri assembly line rather than from Fort Worth.

  • December 12, 2016

    The first two Israeli F-35I "Adir" arrive at Nevatim

    Milestone — The first two F-35I "Adir" landed at Nevatim air base in the Negev after a ferry flight from the United States. Israel was the first foreign customer to receive the Lightning II and the only one cleared to integrate its own electronic warfare and command systems into the airframe, hence its variant's distinct designation. The aircraft flew their first local sortie the following day.

  • January 18, 2017

    The F-35B gains its first permanent overseas base: Iwakuni

    Milestone — The first F-35Bs of squadron VMFA-121 arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, at about half past five in the afternoon local time, nine days after leaving Yuma. It was the Lightning II's first permanent posting outside the United States. The squadron reached sixteen aircraft that summer, when six more arrived.

  • June 5, 2017

    Rollout of the first Japanese-assembled F-35A

    Milestone — AX-5, the first F-35A assembled in Japan, was unveiled at the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries final assembly and check-out facility at Komaki South, Nagoya. It was the programme's third assembly line, after Fort Worth and Cameri, and the outcome of Japan's demand for industrial participation in the contract. The first four aircraft of the Japanese order had been built in Texas.

  • November 3, 2017

    Norway's first three F-35A land at Ørland

    Milestone — Three Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35As landed at Ørland air station on the same day they had left Fort Worth, after a transatlantic ferry flight with air-to-air refuelling. The official reception ceremony was held a week later. Norway, a programme partner since the development phase, had chosen the Lightning II in 2008 over Sweden's Gripen.

  • December 6, 2017

    Israel declares the F-35I "Adir" operational

    Milestone — The Israeli Air Force declared the F-35I operational with 140 Squadron "Golden Eagle" at Nevatim air base, a year after receiving its first two aircraft. Israel thus got ahead of every other foreign customer in the programme. The declaration came with a still small fleet, a decision in keeping with Israeli doctrine of putting equipment into the line as early as possible.

  • February 21, 2018

    Su-57 deployment to Khmeimim air base (Syria)

    Milestone — On 21 February 2018, two Su-57s made their first international flight, landing at the Russian Khmeimim air base in Syria, with further aircraft arriving in the following days. This was the type's first known deployment to an active theatre, used by Russia to test its systems under combat conditions.

  • March 5, 2018

    First operational shipboard deployment of the F-35B, aboard USS Wasp

    Milestone — F-35Bs of squadron VMFA-121 settled onto the deck of USS Wasp, modified to withstand the new fighter's vertical exhaust, and began the type's first operational shipboard deployment with the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit in the Indo-Pacific. Unlike the 2011 sea trials, this time the aircraft embarked as part of a force on mission. The ship operated in waters off Okinawa and the Philippines.

  • May 22, 2018

    Israel reveals the F-35's first use in combat

    Milestone — The head of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Amikam Norkin, told a conference of foreign air chiefs that the F-35I "Adir" had already struck twice "on two different fronts", the Lightning II's first combat use by any operator in the world. Norkin showed an image of the fighter over Beirut that was not cleared for publication, and specified that the F-35 had not taken part in the 10 May strikes against Iranian targets in Syria. Israel has never declassified the dates of those two attacks.

  • June 6, 2018

    The first British F-35B arrive at RAF Marham

    Milestone — Four F-35Bs of 617 Squadron "Dambusters", serialled ZM145 to ZM148, landed at RAF Marham in Norfolk at around eight in the evening. The United Kingdom, the programme's only tier-one partner, had spent a decade training pilots and maintainers in the United States before bringing the aircraft home. The date coincided with the anniversary of the Normandy landings.

  • September 25, 2018

    First F-35B landings aboard the carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth

    Milestone — Two F-35Bs from the Patuxent River integrated test force made the first vertical landings on the deck of HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the Atlantic off Virginia, during the trials deployment known as Westlant 18. At the controls were Royal Navy Commander Nathan Gray and RAF Squadron Leader Andy Edgell. It was the first time in eight years that British pilots had landed aboard a British carrier.

  • September 27, 2018

    First combat strike by a U.S. F-35, in Afghanistan

    Milestone — F-35Bs of squadron VMFA-211, embarked in USS Essex with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, launched from the Arabian Sea and struck a fixed Taliban target in Afghanistan in support of a ground operation, under Operation Freedom's Sentinel. It was the Lightning II's combat debut in American hands, four months after Israel revealed its own use of the fighter. Colonel Chandler Nelms, the expeditionary unit's commander, confirmed the milestone.

  • September 28, 2018

    First hull loss of an F-35: an F-35B crashes near Beaufort

    Accident — An F-35B of training squadron VMFAT-501 crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, South Carolina. The pilot ejected successfully and there were no injuries, but the aircraft was destroyed: it was the first hull loss in the programme's history, a day after the type's combat debut in Afghanistan. The failure was traced to a faulty fuel tube, prompting an inspection of the entire worldwide fleet.

  • October 25, 2018

    Belgium selects the F-35A over the Typhoon

    Institutional — The Belgian government announced the purchase of thirty-four F-35As to replace its F-16s, rejecting the British Eurofighter Typhoon and ignoring the French Rafale offer, which had been made outside the competition. The decision, worth around four billion euros, strained relations with Paris and was justified on grounds of cost and interoperability with European neighbours already flying the aircraft.

  • December 10, 2018

    Australia's first two F-35A arrive at Williamtown

    Milestone — F-35As A35-009 and A35-010, of No. 3 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force, landed at Williamtown in New South Wales a week after leaving Luke Air Force Base. Australia became the seventh nation with Lightning IIs stationed on its own soil. The country had approved the first batch in 2009 and confirmed the full seventy-two aircraft in 2014.

  • February 28, 2019

    The U.S. Navy declares the F-35C operational

    Milestone — The United States Navy declared initial operational capability for the F-35C with strike fighter squadron VFA-147 "Argonauts" at Naval Air Station Lemoore, California. The squadron had completed its carrier qualifications aboard USS Carl Vinson the previous December. The Navy was the last of the three U.S. services to reach the milestone, three and a half years after the Marine Corps.

  • March 29, 2019

    South Korea's first two F-35A arrive at Cheongju

    Milestone — The first two Republic of Korea Air Force F-35As landed at Cheongju air base at 14:35 local time, a week after leaving Luke Air Force Base. South Korea, the programme's third foreign military sales customer after Israel and Japan, had selected the aircraft in 2014 with an order for forty. The arrival made the country the first Lightning II operator on the Korean peninsula.

  • April 9, 2019

    The programme's first fatal accident: a Japanese F-35A is lost over the Pacific

    Accident — A Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-35A vanished from radar over the Pacific about 135 kilometres east of Misawa air base during a night air-combat exercise. Its pilot, Major Akinori Hosomi, was killed: the programme's first fatality. The investigation concluded that the pilot had suffered spatial disorientation and never attempted to eject.

  • April 30, 2019

    Combat debut of the U.S. Air Force F-35A over Iraq

    Milestone — Two F-35As of the 4th Fighter Squadron, deployed from Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates, dropped a JDAM precision weapon on a tunnel network and weapons cache of the self-styled Islamic State at Wadi Ashai, in the Hamrin mountains of north-eastern Iraq. The mission was part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The aircraft, from Hill Air Force Base's 388th and 419th wings, had reached the region a fortnight earlier.

  • July 17, 2019

    The United States formally removes Turkey from the F-35 programme

    Institutional — The White House announced Turkey's formal removal from the F-35 programme after Ankara received the first components of the Russian S-400 air defence system. Washington argued that operating the Russian radar alongside the stealth fighter would compromise its low-observable characteristics. Turkey had been an industrial partner since 2002, had ordered a hundred aircraft and made parts for the whole fleet, which had to be resourced to other suppliers.

  • October 31, 2019

    First operational F-35A permanently stationed in the Netherlands

    Milestone — Dutch F-35A F-009 landed at Leeuwarden air base at half past three in the afternoon, this time to stay: it was the first operational aircraft permanently stationed in the country. The Netherlands had previously received test aircraft, but training and testing were carried out in the United States. The country had formally selected the Lightning II in 2013 with a plan for thirty-seven aircraft.

  • December 24, 2019

    Crash of the first production Su-57 near Komsomolsk-on-Amur

    Accident — On 24 December 2019, the first production Su-57 (tail number "Blue 01"), not yet delivered to the armed forces, crashed during a test flight about 111 km from its home airfield in the Khabarovsk region, after a flight-control system failure sent it into a spin. The pilot ejected safely and was rescued by helicopter; there were no casualties or damage on the ground. The accident delayed completion of the programme's state trials.

  • December 27, 2019

    Algeria signs the first Su-57 export contract

    Institutional — In late December 2019, Algeria signed a contract for 14 Su-57E export-variant aircraft, part of a wider arms package that also included Su-34 and Su-35 fighters. This was the type's first known export contract; deliveries have since been repeatedly delayed.

2020s
  • 2020

    Retirement of the Douglas DC-7

    Milestone — The Douglas DC-7 was retired from service in 2020.

  • January 9, 2020

    The United States approves the sale of F-35B to Singapore

    Institutional — The U.S. State Department approved a possible sale to Singapore of up to twelve F-35Bs, four firm and eight on option. Singapore, which had declared its interest in 2019, became the first Southeast Asian customer and chose the short take-off variant because of the city-state's airspace and runway constraints.

  • January 31, 2020

    Poland signs the Harpia programme contract for 32 F-35A

    Institutional — Polish Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak signed the contract for thirty-two F-35As under the Harpia programme at Dęblin air base, worth 4.6 billion dollars. It was the first fifth-generation fighter purchase by a former Warsaw Pact member, and came with Poland still operating Soviet-built MiG-29s and Su-22s.

  • May 19, 2020

    An F-35A crashes on landing at Eglin

    Accident — An F-35A of the 58th Fighter Squadron crashed while landing at night at Eglin Air Force Base at the end of a training mission. The pilot ejected and was recovered alive. The investigation pointed to a combination of excessive approach speed, pilot fatigue, a landing-system malfunction and interference from the helmet-mounted display, whose imagery overlapped the visual references.

  • September 29, 2020

    Mid-air collision between an F-35B and a KC-130J tanker

    Accident — A Marine Corps F-35B collided with a KC-130J during air-to-air refuelling over the Imperial Valley desert in California. The fighter's pilot ejected and the tanker made an emergency belly landing in a field, with no casualties among its eight crew. The F-35B was destroyed, the type's second hull loss.

  • December 25, 2020

    Su-57 enters service with the Russian air force

    Milestone — The Russian Ministry of Defence announced on 25 December 2020 that the Su-57 had entered service following the delivery of the first production aircraft, assigned to the Southern Military District and based at Lipetsk.

  • March 1, 2021

    First F-35B landing aboard the Italian carrier Cavour

    Milestone — Two F-35Bs from the U.S. Navy test squadron VX-23 made the first landing on the deck of the Italian carrier Cavour, off Norfolk, as part of the ship's certification campaign for the type. The trials closed on 26 March with more than fifty missions and around a hundred and twenty landings and take-offs. Certification opened the way for the Marina Militare to embark its own aircraft.

  • June 22, 2021

    First combat missions launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth

    Milestone — The British Ministry of Defence confirmed that RAF and U.S. Marine Corps F-35Bs had launched their first combat missions from HMS Queen Elizabeth, in the eastern Mediterranean, against targets of the self-styled Islamic State under Operation Shader. It was the first time a British carrier had conducted strike operations since the Harrier's retirement in 2010. Some secondary sources place earlier sorties between 18 and 20 June, without official confirmation.

  • June 30, 2021

    The Swiss Federal Council selects the F-35A under Air2030

    Institutional — The Swiss Federal Council announced the selection of thirty-six F-35As under the Air2030 programme, ahead of the Rafale, the Typhoon and the Super Hornet, at a cost of around five billion francs. The decision proved contentious in a country that had approved the funding by referendum the previous year by fewer than nine thousand votes, and prompted a popular initiative to overturn it.

  • July 30, 2021

    An Italian Navy F-35B lands aboard the Cavour for the first time

    Milestone — F-35B MM7454, coded BL-4 of the Marina Militare, landed aboard the Cavour for the first time while the ship was sailing in the Gulf of Taranto. Until then only American aircraft had operated from her deck, during the certification trials in March. Italy became the second country in the world, after the United States, to operate the Lightning II from a carrier of its own.

  • November 17, 2021

    First British loss: an F-35B falls into the Mediterranean from HMS Queen Elizabeth

    Accident — A Royal Air Force F-35B plunged into the Mediterranean just after taking off from HMS Queen Elizabeth. The pilot ejected and was recovered aboard the carrier. The cause was a plastic air-intake cover that had not been removed before flight and starved the engine; the wreckage was salvaged from the seabed weeks later to keep it out of foreign hands.

  • December 10, 2021

    Finland selects the F-35A at the end of the HX competition

    Institutional — The Finnish government announced the purchase of sixty-four F-35As to replace its F/A-18 Hornets, closing the HX competition in which the Rafale, Typhoon, Gripen and Super Hornet had also competed. The contract, worth some 8.4 billion euros, was the largest military acquisition in the country's history and was decided while Finland was still not a NATO member.

  • January 4, 2022

    A South Korean F-35A makes a belly landing at Seosan

    Accident — A Republic of Korea Air Force F-35A landed without its undercarriage at Seosan air base after a bird strike disabled much of its flight electronics. The pilot was unhurt. South Korea temporarily grounded its fleet and eventually withdrew the aircraft from service, the repair being judged economically unviable.

  • January 24, 2022

    An F-35C crashes into the deck of USS Carl Vinson

    Accident — An F-35C of squadron VFA-147 struck the after ramp of USS Carl Vinson while attempting to land in the South China Sea and fell into the water. The pilot ejected and was rescued, and seven people were injured on deck. The Navy recovered the wreckage from more than 3,700 metres down in an operation lasting weeks.

  • March 14, 2022

    Germany decides to buy 35 F-35A for the NATO nuclear mission

    Institutional — The German government announced the purchase of thirty-five F-35As to replace the Tornado in NATO's nuclear sharing deterrence mission. The decision came three weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Chancellor Olaf Scholz's budget turn, and ended years of Berlin's reluctance towards the aircraft, which it had ruled out in 2019 in favour of the Super Hornet.

  • October 19, 2022

    Wake turbulence downs an F-35A at Hill

    Accident — An F-35A of the 388th Fighter Wing crashed at the end of the runway at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, while landing after an exercise. The pilot ejected and survived with injuries. The investigation concluded that wake turbulence from the preceding aircraft in the formation destabilised the jet during the approach.

  • December 10, 2022

    Fire and loss of the B-2 Spirit «Spirit of Hawaii»

    Accident — On 10 December 2022 the B-2 «Spirit of Hawaii», of the 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, suffered a hydraulic failure that caused the main landing gear to collapse and sparked a fire upon returning to base. With damage estimated at roughly $300 million, the Air Force judged repair uneconomical and confirmed the aircraft's permanent retirement, reducing the fleet to 19 airframes.

  • December 15, 2022

    A factory-fresh F-35B crashes at Fort Worth

    Accident — An F-35B crashed during an acceptance flight at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, next to the plant where it had been built. The aircraft bounced off the runway in hover mode and the Lockheed Martin test pilot ejected at very low altitude with minor injuries. Video of the mishap circulated widely and the episode was attributed to an oscillation in the propulsion system.

  • January 9, 2023

    Canada finally closes the contract for 88 F-35A

    Institutional — The Canadian government announced the finalisation of the contract for eighty-eight F-35As, worth around nineteen billion Canadian dollars, after thirteen years of reversals since the first announcement in 2010. The purchase closed a process that had included the 2012 cancellation, an interim buy of second-hand Australian Super Hornets and a reopened competition in which the Gripen was the last rival standing.

  • September 14, 2023

    The first Danish F-35A arrive at Skrydstrup

    Milestone — Four Royal Danish Air Force F-35As landed at Skrydstrup air base in Jutland after flying from the United States. Denmark, a programme partner since its development phase, had approved the purchase in 2016 with a parliamentary agreement for twenty-seven aircraft to replace its F-16s. The aircraft were assigned to 727 Squadron.

  • September 17, 2023

    The South Carolina "ghost jet": an F-35B flies on after its pilot ejects

    Accident — The pilot of an F-35B of squadron VMFAT-501 ejected in bad weather near Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, and the aircraft flew on unmanned for more than a hundred kilometres before coming down in rural Williamsburg County. The Marine Corps publicly asked the population for help in locating the wreckage, and the episode became famous as the "ghost jet". The investigation found the pilot had ejected because of a cascading electrical failure that led him to believe the aircraft was lost.

  • January 29, 2024

    The Czech Republic signs the letter of acceptance for 24 F-35A

    Institutional — The Czech Republic signed the letter of offer and acceptance for twenty-four F-35As, replacing the leased Swedish Gripens it had been operating. With the signature, Prague joined the group of Lightning II operators, with first deliveries scheduled for the end of the decade. The contract was worth around 6.5 billion dollars.

  • May 28, 2024

    An F-35B crashes at Kirtland during a ferry flight

    Accident — A factory-fresh F-35B crashed on take-off from Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, during a refuelling stop on its ferry flight from Fort Worth. The Lockheed Martin test pilot ejected and was seriously injured. The accident briefly halted deliveries and disrupted local electricity supply when the aircraft struck nearby infrastructure.

  • July 2024

    First F-16s delivered to Ukraine

    Milestone — By the end of July 2024, Ukraine received its first F-16s from the international donor coalition formed after the 2023 Vilnius summit.

  • July 25, 2024

    Greece joins the F-35 programme with an order for 20 aircraft

    Institutional — Greece signed the letter of offer and acceptance for twenty F-35As, with an option on twenty more, becoming the programme's nineteenth global alliance member. Athens had submitted its formal request in 2020, amid tension with Turkey in the Aegean and after Ankara had been shut out of the programme.

  • August 28, 2024

    The Italian Navy declares its embarked F-35B component operational

    Milestone — Italy declared initial operational capability for the joint embarked F-35B component, made up of Marina Militare and Aeronautica Militare aircraft operating from the carrier Cavour. The milestone came during the ship's Indo-Pacific deployment and three years after the first Italian F-35B landing on her deck. It made Italy the only European country with an operational fifth-generation carrier air wing.

  • November 21, 2024

    Romania becomes the twentieth member of the F-35 global alliance

    Institutional — Romania signed the letter of offer and acceptance for thirty-two F-35As, joining as the programme's twentieth global alliance member. The Romanian parliament had backed the purchase the previous year. The country, a neighbour of Ukraine with a Black Sea coastline, was operating second-hand F-16s acquired from Portugal and Norway.

  • January 28, 2025

    An F-35A crashes at Eielson and the pilot ejects in full view of the base

    Accident — An F-35A of the 354th Fighter Wing crashed close to Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, after a failure on approach. The pilot ejected and was recovered alive; footage of the aircraft coming down while the parachute drifted over the runway travelled the world. The investigation pointed to hydraulic fluid in the landing gear freezing in the extreme conditions of interior Alaska.

  • June 21, 2025

    Operation Midnight Hammer: B-2 Spirit strike on Iranian nuclear facilities

    Milestone — On the night of 21-22 June 2025, seven B-2 Spirits took off from Whiteman Air Force Base and flew more than 13,000 km to Iran to drop 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator bombs on the Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities in Operation Midnight Hammer. It was the first operational use of the GBU-57 and one of the longest and highest-profile combat missions flown by the type since Kosovo.

  • July 30, 2025

    An F-35C is lost near Naval Air Station Lemoore

    Accident — A U.S. Navy F-35C crashed near Naval Air Station Lemoore, in California's Central Valley, at around half past six in the evening local time. The pilot ejected and was taken to hospital for observation. Several outlets dated the event to 31 July because of their publication time, but the base's official release places it on the 30th.

  • October 13, 2025

    Belgium's first F-35A arrives at Florennes

    Milestone — The first F-35A of the Belgian Air Component landed at Florennes air base in the province of Namur after the ferry flight from the United States. Belgium had selected the Lightning II in 2018 with an order for thirty-four aircraft to relieve its F-16s in NATO air policing and nuclear sharing roles. The official welcome ceremony was held the following day.

  • December 16, 2025

    Rollout of Finland's first F-35A

    Milestone — The first F-35A destined for the Finnish Air Force was unveiled at the Fort Worth plant. Finland had chosen the Lightning II in December 2021 at the end of the HX competition, with an order for sixty-four aircraft to replace its fleet of F/A-18C/D Hornets. The country had joined NATO two years before the aircraft's debut.

  • March 19, 2026

    A U.S. F-35 makes an emergency landing after a combat mission against Iran

    Accident — A U.S. F-35 was forced into an emergency landing on returning from a combat mission related to Iran, as confirmed by military command. It is the first documented case of a Lightning II damaged in the course of a real combat operation. Details of the cause and extent of the damage were not made public.

  • May 22, 2026

    Poland's first F-35A "Husarz" arrive at Łask

    Milestone — The first Polish Air Force F-35As, named "Husarz" after the Commonwealth's winged cavalry, landed at Łask air base in the centre of the country. Poland had signed the Harpia programme contract in 2020 for thirty-two aircraft, the first fifth-generation fighter purchase by a former Warsaw Pact member. Until then Polish pilots had trained at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Arkansas.

  • July 31, 2026

    An F-35 crashes at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar

    Accident — An F-35 crashed at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in San Diego. It is the most recent recorded mishap involving the type and again drew attention to the accident rate of a fleet that already exceeds a thousand aircraft in service across some twenty countries.