Photo courtesy of US NavyLt Cdr Eric "Magic" Buus on 20 May recorded the first official F-35 airshow fly-over, banking the Patuxent River-based CF-2 test aircraft slightly toward the crowd at Andrews AFB, Maryland.
It's technically not the first time an F-35 has flown above an airshow crowd. Last year, F-35 flight test aircraft inadvertently made several fly-overs of the Fort Worth air show, which shared the runway with Lockheed's F-35 check-out operations. occurred
By the looks of the fly-over, F-35 programme officials spared few, if any, precious minutes of test time preparing for the aircraft's debut flying display. Considering the programme still has at least seven years of flight test ahead, it's hard to be critical about the absence of any crowd-pleasing manoeuvres.
It was only a month ago this blog speculated the F-35's first appearance at a major show could come at Dubai in November, or perhaps Farnborough next year. It's probably too much to hope for a proper introductory flying display, but here's hoping!
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