The moment an RAF pilot lines up for the first ever British landing of a £100million F35 stealth fighter jet on Royal Navy aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth
- Peter Wilson will try first attempt at landing the F-35B Lightning Stealth Fighter
- Will land the most advanced fighter aircraft on HMS Queen Elizabeth ship
- Pilot says the land is ‘proving a concept so cutting edge’ and world is watching
- The jets will undergo exercises off east coast of north America, MOD says
- F-35 is to be shown in Britain’s Biggest Warship programme on BBC tomorrow
The first ever landing of the of RAF’s new £100million F35 stealth fighter jet on Britain’s biggest ever warship is to be shown on a BBC documentary tomorrow night.
HMS Queen Elizabeth cost £3.5billion and took nine years to build.
And now 15,000 sailors, marines and aviators are about to leave on the ship for four months to test the most advanced, state-of-the-art F-35B Lightning Stealth Fighter.
HMS Queen Elizabeth has seen her first British-owned stealth fighters land on her deck
Peter Wilson piloted the fifth-generation fighter jet onto the warship’s deck
The first ever landing of the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft on Britain’s biggest ever warship is to be revealed in a documentary tomorrow night. Pictured: F35B Lightning Stealth Fighter Takes Off From HMS Queen Elizabeth’s Flight Deck
Peter ‘Wizzer’ Wilson, who has 30 years experience flying in the RAF and Navy, is shown in the documentary landing the first British-owned jet on the Queen Elizabeth.
His speed and descent has to be perfect.
The £100million fleet of jets are top secret and will undergo rigorous exercises off the east coast of north America, the Ministry of Defence said.
HMS Queen Elizabeth cost £3.5billion and took nine years to build. Pictured: HMS Queen Elizabeth arriving into Mayport, Florida
Now 15,000 sailors, marines and aviators are about to leave on the ship for four months. Pictured: Captain Jerry Kyd with key members of his ship’s company
This development follows the success of US military Lightning jets and the F-35B model is to be the first to combine radar-evading stealth technology with supersonic speeds and short take off
This development follows the success of US military Lightning jets and the F-35B model is to be the first to combine radar-evading stealth technology with supersonic speeds and short take off.
Mr Wilson told the BBC: ‘This is a moment in history.
Nathan Gray, Royal Navy Test Pilot, said the team are ‘proving a concept so cutting edge’ while the world is watching
‘This is something phenomenal that is about to happen because the capability this will bring for the F-35 to be able to bring back weight to Queen Elizabeth means the military can operate the F-35 in a way that the other forces cannot.’
In an exclusive clip released ahead of the programme, pilot’s can be heard ordering the release of the F-35 jet which speeds along the Queen Elizabeth.
Nathan Gray, Royal Navy Test Pilot, said the team are ‘proving a concept so cutting edge’ while the world is watching.
They will be manned by the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy will take ownership from land and sea.
Within the first few hours of leaving Portsmouth’s harbour, a Russian warship is detected and the British ship needs immediate action, it is revealed in the highly-anticipated documentary tomorrow .
The crew then have to deal with flooding and dangerous fuel leaks before finally arriving at Mayport Naval Station in Florida, USA.
More than 1,000 British sailors make a pit stop and flood into local bars – just before they return to the ship.
F-35B Lightning II Fighter Jet: The £100million aircraft
F-35B Lightning II Fighter Jets cost £100million each to build.
A fleet of nine arrived at RAF Marham in Norfolk on June 6, 2018, which became their permanent base before being transferred on to the HMS Queen Elizabeth.
It is expected that the eventual number of jets in the fleet will be 138.
The aircraft can reach a maximum altitude of 50,000 feet.
The fleet only need a short take-off run of 450ft to get into the air despite having a maximum take-off weight of around 60,000lb.
With a wingspan of 35ft, the F-35B jets can reach a top speed of 1,228 mph (Mach 1.6) during flight.
Typically, an aircraft will have two Air-to-Air Missiles and two bombs on board. They have a combat radius of 833km.
The jets also have the capability of being used for electronic warfare and intelligence gathering.
Lockheed Martin, who built the jet, describes its stealth capabilities as ‘unprecedented’. Its airframe design, advanced materials and other features make it ‘virtually undetectable to enemy radar’. They are coated with a radar-absorbing finish and fibre mats to help mask them from enemy radar.
The pilots’ helmets alone cost £300,000 each.
They are built from more than 300,000 individual parts which take 58,000 man hours to put together.