Ouch! That must have hurt!!!
Oh, wait. I misunderstood.
That headline should have read,
Jet Lands On HMS Queen Elizabeth
A ship. It landed on a British ship, not on the actual queen.
Whew! That’s a relief!!!
The F-35B jet landed on the ship last month, just days before an F-35B crashed in 
North Carolina.
Ouch! That really hurts!!!
That sucker cost $122,000,000!!!
Give or take a few million.
To ease your mind, the pilot of the crashed F-35B ejected safely and no one on the ground was hurt.
This is the first time an F-35B (full name: F-35B Lightning II single-seat, single-engined, all-weather stealth multirole fighter) has crashed. The F-35 “family” has drawn sharp criticism over its lengthy development and cost overruns, despite reassurances by US military leaders who say the kinks are being worked out.
Ouch!!! Those are expensive kinks!!!
The aforementioned “family” is a veritable alphabetical and numerical soup that includes:
- F-35A CTOL (Conventional Takeoff and Landing)
- F-35I Adir (an F-35A with Israeli modifications)
- CF-35 (proposed Canadian variant of the F-35A)
- F-35D (possible future upgrade to the F-35A)
- F-35B STOVL (Short Takeoff and Vertical Landing)
- F-35C CATOBAR (Catapult-Assisted Takeoff But Arrested Recovery)
That’s a lot of soup!
Why, you may be wondering, are there three F-35s – the A, B, and C?
Because the Air Force, Navy and Marines each required their own special touches. You might want your “Probe and Drogue,” or your “Gattling Gun,” or your “3-Bearing Swivel Nozzle” or all three, or some combination:
And how about a sun roof? Sure, we can do that:
None of that one-size-fits-all stuff for our military! And what the hell, it’s not their money.
Here’s a photo of the F-35A, F-35B and F-35C – can you guess which is which?
Of course you can!
What sets the F-35B apart is that it can take off and land vertically, like a helicopter.
That comes in handy when you’re landing on Queen Elizabeth.
On the ship, that is.
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