The F-35A Lightning II Demonstration Team is a

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

flight demonstration team under the

388th Fighter Wing The 388th Fighter Wing (388FW) is a United States Air Force unit assigned to the Air Combat Command Fifteenth Air Force. The unit is stationed at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. Units 388th Operations Group (388 OG) * 4th Fighter Squadron (4 FS) : ...

currently stationed at

Hill Air Force Base Hill Air Force Base is a major U.S. Air Force (USAF) base located in Davis County, Utah, just south of the city of Ogden, and bordering the Cities of Layton, Clearfield, Riverdale, Roy, and Sunset with its largest border immediately adja ...

Davis County, Utah Davis County is a county in northern Utah, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 362,679, making it Utah's third-most populous county. Its county seat is Farmington, and its largest city by both population an ...

. The team flies the USAF's F-35A fighter jet at

airshow An air show (or airshow, air fair, air tattoo) is a public event where aircraft are exhibited. They often include aerobatics demonstrations, without which they are called "static air shows" with aircraft parked on the ground. The largest air ...

s performing air maneuvers that demonstrate the

supermaneuverability Supermaneuverability is the capability of fighter aircraft to execute tactical maneuvers that are not possible with purely Supermaneuverability#Aerodynamic maneuverability vs supermaneuverability, aerodynamic techniques. Such maneuvers can inv ...

of the F-35A. Examples of these demonstrations include the minimum radius turn to high alpha loop, weapons bay door pass, pedal turn, slow speed to power climb and tactical pitch. The demonstration team was founded in late 2018 and was originally stationed at

Luke Air Force Base Luke Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base in Maricopa County, Arizona, United States., effective 20 December 2007 It is located west of the central business district of Glendale, Arizona, Glendale, and west of Phoenix, Arizona, P ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, It moved to

in 2019. The current demonstration pilot and commander of the team is Major Melanie "Mach" Kluesner. Kluesner took over for the former demonstration pilot and team commander, Major Kristin "Beo" Wolfe in March of 2024.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Team's official website
Squadrons of the United States Air Force Military units and formations in Utah American aerobatic teams