Yes, no more testing units. This is the very first Department of Defence F-35, at bloody last. You can see it arriving to its new home at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, piloted by US Air Force Lt. Col. Eric Smith, the first USAF pilot qualified to fly the F-35. It will remain at its new home with the 33rd Fighter Wing as a training aircraft, so all those jockeys can learn to fly the ones that are coming next. [USAF]
Jokemeister
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 8:14 AMAlmost looks like James Bond in the cockpit.
Merc
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 1:40 PMWow, I wasn’t the only one who saw Daniel Craig when I glimpsed at that photo.
EckyThump
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 9:01 AMYeah, it’s pretty birdy! At a cost of somewhere around US $130 to $150 milion per unit,.. bargain!! Multiply that by the expected number of units plus maintenance,..Wow! chump change, I’ll take 10 please! What a complete bloody waste of money.. They should of pumped it into NASA!
Simon Reidy
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 11:10 AMMy thoughts exactly. NASA’s budget has been cut to record lows, while the military budget continues to inflate to record highs. There’s something seriously wrong with that.
Steve
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 5:02 PMThis was actually the lesser of two evils, with the F-22 that it’s ‘replacing’ being somewhere near quarter a billion each.
EckyThump
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 9:31 AMI understand where you’re coming from, but perhaps unfortunate you say, “lesser of two evils” because there really isn’t any difference between them in the scheme of things!
RobbyM
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 9:33 AMLet’s also not forget that they carry less weapons than other aircraft because everything is carried in internal weapon bays..
Going to be interesting to see how the new F-15 (Silent Eagle) with stealth capability handles as they can at least carry the usual weapon load (as necessary) and if they loose an engine – can still make it back to base.
TSH
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 11:55 AM…and NASA continues to get shafted. We could have had a mile-wide toroidal space-station 10 years ago, dammit!
Also +1 to the above: are they really that much better than existing airframes? More importantly: are they better *for Australia* than existing planes?
Patrick
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 12:45 PMIm amazed that a country that effectively has no money can still afford either…. thats global economics for you!!
David
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 2:17 PMWhoever believes the US has no money is a fool.
OMG debt ceiling reached? It’s been raised 74 times since the 60′s. Last time I checked, we’ve had both great growth and recessions multiple times since. The economy is in constant flux, it is how it works, it can never always be perfect. People need to stop whining like little school girls.
EckyThump
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 3:19 PMThe US dollar was originally backed by gold, and when it ran out they just started to print money that has nothing behind it! Hence the major bounce when the corrupt ass-holes running the chook house turned out to be foxes!!
Shaun
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 1:52 PMBest job in the world.
D
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 3:10 PMits cost australian taxpayers so much money. We should of let the americas develop it then purchase it for a fraction of the cost, like so many other countries are going to do.
Steve
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 5:05 PMI think I’ll take my news from people who know if “should of” is appropriate English or not, thanks.
EckyThump
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 3:21 PMIs it really necessary to put a persons views down by demoralising them for poor grammar?
nope
Wednesday, July 20, 2011 at 8:29 PMWhich country will be the new Libya for these to be delivered to? Plenty of resource rich African nations are looking for ‘US liberty’.
Pedro
Thursday, July 21, 2011 at 11:38 AMI like the shape of the F-16 more betterer.