On Wednesday June 22, the official ceremony to mark the acceptance of the first fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter by the Israeli Air Force took place in Lockheed Martin plant in Ft Worth ,Texas. The fighter is named F-35I “Adir”

The first pair of F-35I (the second is scheduled to leave the assembly line in a few weeks) will fly to their new home in December 2016.

July 25th, we spot the 1st maiden flight for the F-35I designate AS-1 from Lockheed Martin. Our photographer from Airwingspotter Joseph Fischer photo document this milestone event.

Account from Joseph in the field “AS-1 Adir F-35A had its first flight today around 1:50pm, Orbited around JRB and flew out to the range, came back within 30 minutes due to a battery problem “Lightning 2-1” was holding hands with “Lightning 2-2″ (Chase F-16) on a 10 mile final, full stop using the whole runway.”

Pictures by Joseph Fischer

Article by Dave Chng

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