F-35B fighter jet's first vertical landing was years, billions in the making (video)

Lockheed Martin's F-35 program has been a political whipping boy seemingly forever, but the VTOL 'B'-variant of the pricey supersonic jet finally did what it was made for: a vertical landing. That happened nearly two years to the day after the estimated $304 million (each!) jet's first mid-air hover, at which point the Pentagon pegged the cost at $83 million. Inflation aside, it seemed to make a fine, if solid three point landing and Lockheed Martin says it's made considerable strides in the flight testing program over the last couple of years, despite all the overruns and delays. Hopefully that means the Marines, Britain's Royal Air Force et. al. will be able to deploy their F-35B's soon -- ie, before they're already obsolete. Check the video after the break.

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Via: Megazone (Google+)

Source: Lockheed Martin (YouTube)