Lt. Col. Eric Smith, the 58th Fighter Squadron director of operations, secures his helmet for testing prior to stepping to the F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighter for its first-ever training sortie March 6 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Smith is the first Air Force pilot qualified to fly the F-35.

---

Lt. Col. Eric Smith, the 58th Fighter Squadron director of operations, secures his helmet for testing prior to stepping to the F-35A Lightning II joint strike fighter for its first-ever training sortie March 6 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. Smith is the first Air Force pilot qualified to fly the F-35.

---

Size: 2162px × 3000px
Photo credit: © 508 collection / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: -, -35, -35., -35a, ., 33rd, 58th, 6, air, aircraft, airman, base, corp, director, eglin, eric, fighter, fla., florida, fly, force, fw, helmet, ii, joint, jsf, lightning, lt., march, marine, operations, pilot, prior, qualified, secures, smith, sortie, squadron, stepping, strike, testing, training, wing