Today we visited the Patuxent River Naval Air Museum. Dad works at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station. He works on the F-35. We saw the prototype of the F-35, the X-35 at the museum today.
The X-35 was built by Lockheed Martin and part of a fly-off competition to win the contract to build the Joint Strike Fighter. The other airplane in the competition, the Boeing X-32, is also at the museum.
The F-35 is intended to replace the F-16 for the Air Force, the Harrier for the Marines, and the F-18 for the Navy. We saw an F-18 at the museum today. The Blue Angels fly F-18s and really demonstrate how impressive it is.
Another airplane we saw today was the F-14. The F-14 was made famous in the movie Top Gun. It is Dad's favorite plane.
We learned a lot about naval aviation today. One good thing about airplanes is that their wings make for good shade on a sunny day.
Kat