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The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) was officially named Lightning II in a ceremony held in Fort Worth, Texas on July 7. The name echoes two formidable fighters from the past — the World War II-era Lockheed P-38 Lightning and the mid-1950s Lightning supersonic jet, built by English Electric. Attendees at the event included U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley, who announced the F-35’s new name.

The P-38 Lightning was built by Lockheed, now Lockheed Martin, the JSF program’s prime contractor. During World War II, the P-38 scored the most aerial victories of any U.S. Army Air Forces fighter in the Pacific theater. Designed as a high-altitude interceptor, the sleek P-38, with its distinctive twin tail, evolved into a versatile aircraft that was also used for dive bombing, level bombing, ground strafing and photo-reconnaissance missions.

The Lightning II is a fifth-generation, supersonic stealth fighter designed to replace a wide range of existing aircraft, including AV-8B Harriers, A-10s, F-16s, F/A-18 Hornets and United Kingdom Harrier GR.7s and Sea Harriers. It will be the most powerful single-engine fighter ever manufactured.
Lockheed Martin is developing the F-35 with its principal industrial partners, Northrop Grumman and BAE Systems. Two separate, interchangeable F-35 engines are under development: the Pratt & Whitney F135 and the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136.

The inaugural flight of the first F-35, a preproduction conventional take off and landing variant, is planned for later this year. Fifteen F-35s will undergo flight test, seven will be used for static testing and another will validate the aircraft’s radar signature.