F-35 To Miss Farnborough Opening

F-35B will not be displaying at the Farnborough Air Show on Monday 14 July. F-35 may still make it to Farnborough later this week.

“The aircraft is still awaiting US DoD clearance but we are hopeful that it will fly at the airshow by the end of the week,” Farnborough Media Centre stated. Safety should not be compromised of either the pilots or the participants, it added.

Earlier this month, US, and UK military officials were jointly preparing for mandatory inspections of the grounded F-35 engines after one of the fighters caught fire at Florida.

British authorities need additional information before granting flight clearances. If something went wrong, the individual officer who approved the flight could be sued personally, the sources had said.

The Fire accident led to cancellation of the first appearances outside the US during the naming ceremony of HMS Elizabeth.