Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II

what is it?

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is an American family of single-seat, single-engine, supersonic stealth strike fighters. A multirole combat aircraft designed for air superiority and strike missions, it also has electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, with partners Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · fixed-wing aircraft · retractable tricycle gear · 10.7 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 1,975 km/htop speed
• range 2,778 kmwithout refuelling
• size 29.9 tmax take-off weight
• built 610made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 20 years ago, in 2006.
• 🏎️Top speed is 15.2× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.6 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🚗Wingspan of 10.7 m: about 2 cars parked nose to tail.
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 5 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🌍Range of 2,778 km: 15× Amsterdam to Brussels.
• 🏔️Can fly 1.7× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

2006-12-15

introduced

2015

status

still flying

number built

610

role

multirole strike fighter

origin

🇺🇸 United States

makers

Lockheed Martin, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

engines

1× Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 / Pratt & Whitney F135

crew

1

length

15.7 m

wingspan

10.7 m

height

4.4 m

max take-off weight

29.9 t

top speed

1,975 km/h

range

2,778 km

ceiling

15,240 m

wings

fixed-wing aircraft

landing gear

retractable tricycle gear

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.