F-35 Lightning II
ICAO F35The most-produced stealth fighter, and one you will almost never see on a tracker. Here is why, and what does appear.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No F-35 Lightning II is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Lockheed Martin
- Role
- Stealth multirole fighter
- Class
- L1J — Landplane, 1 jet engine
- Crew
- 1
- First flight
- 15 December 2006
- In service
- 2015
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the F-35 Lightning II
More than a thousand F-35s have been built and around twenty countries have ordered it, which makes the near-permanent zero on this page a fair question. The answer is that a stealth aircraft has an obvious reason not to broadcast its position, and its operators do not.
What does occasionally appear is European. The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Italy and the United Kingdom fly in airspace where transponder use is expected for routine transits, and a delivery flight or a transatlantic ferry will often be visible for part of the way.
Three variants share the name: the F-35A for conventional runways, the F-35B that can land vertically, and the carrier-capable F-35C. All three report the same designator here.
Callsign prefixes
- NAF
- Royal Netherlands Air Force
- IAM
- Italian Air Force
- RRR
- Ascot — Royal Air Force
How to recognise it
- —A single engine, a single seat and a faceted, angular fuselage with no sharp external edges to catch radar.
- —Canted twin fins and a bulged underside housing the internal weapons bay.
- —The F-35B has a lift fan door immediately behind the cockpit.
Common questions
+ Why can I never find an F-35 on a flight tracker?
Because a stealth aircraft transmitting its position defeats much of its purpose, and operators keep ADS-B off outside routine transits. When you do see one, it is usually a ferry flight or a delivery.
+ What is the difference between the F-35A, B and C?
Runway requirements. The A is conventional, the B has a lift fan for short takeoff and vertical landing, and the C has a bigger wing and stronger structure for carrier operations.
+ Which countries fly the F-35?
Around twenty, including the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Finland, Switzerland, Poland, Belgium and Germany.