The STOVL version of the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter conducted its first ski-jump takeoff on June 19. The Lockheed Martin F-35B development aircraft, BF-04, was launched from a test ramp at NAS Patuxent River, Md. The British and Italian naval air arms will use the technique on their aircraft carriers, in lieu of catapults, to boost the takeoff weight—and therefore the payload—of their F-35Bs.

BAE Systems test pilot Peter “Whizzer” Wilson, who is the ski-jump project lead, said the test followed “years of planning, collaboration and training…and hundreds of hours in the simulator. As usual, the jet performed as expected.” He said that the phase-one flight-tests, now under way and expected to last two weeks, will be followed by phase-two tests on board the UK’s HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier. 

The official F-35 joint program office (JPO) terminology for the ski-jump technique is “ramp-assisted short takeoff (STO).” The JPO noted that the F-35B’s design allows it to automatically position the control surfaces and nozzles for takeoff, a capability previous STOVL aircraft did not have. Such automation frees up pilot capacity and provides an added safety enhancement, the JPO continued. The same type of automation is provided for vertical landings.

The UK is also leading development of the shipboard rolling vertical landing technique for the F-35B. This will allow a higher landing weight than is possible in a vertical landing, and therefore ensure that unspent weapons can be "brought back," rather than jettisoned. Last year, Wilson said that this will be the primary means of landing on the British aircraft carriers. “We started simulating this technique five years ago, and have another two years to go. But we can’t test it for real until 2018,” he said.