British Test Pilot Marks Milestone In JSF Program

British Test Pilot Marks Milestone In JSF Program: First UK Pilot To Fly The Carrier Variant Of The F-35 On February 21, Royal Air Force (RAF) Squadron Leader Jim Schofield became the United Kingdom's first military test pilot to fly the F-35C, the carrier variant of the Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft. Schofield's flight is the latest in a series of milestones for the UK's Joint Combat Aircraft program, which included the first F-35C launch on the test electromagnetic aircraft launch system (EMALS) on November 18, 2011, and the rollout of the first UK F-35 from the production line four days later.