Above Ten Thousand
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Aviation and space timeline

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

1910s
  • 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.

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    Dr.I withdrawn from the front as the Fokker D.VII arrives

    Milestone — The Dr.I was withdrawn from front-line service as the new Fokker D.VII entered widespread service in June and July 1918; surviving triplanes were relegated to training and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

1920s
1930s
1940s
  • 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.

  • 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 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 Douglas DC-4

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

  • 1942

    Service entry of the Avro Lancaster

    Milestone — The Avro Lancaster 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.

  • 1942

    Service entry of the North American P-51 Mustang

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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."

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

1950s
1960s
1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 2007

    Service entry of the Airbus A380

    Milestone — The Airbus A380 entered service in 2007.

  • 2009

    Service entry of the Antonov An-148

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

2010s
  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 2013

    Retirement of the Vickers VC10

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 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.

  • 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.

2020s
  • 2020

    Retirement of the Douglas DC-7

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.