HILL AIR FORCE BASE, Utah — Awesome, powerful, and loud.
Those are just some of the words to describe watching a state-of-the-art, U.S. Air Force F-35A demonstrate its technical capabilities up close.
Hill Air Force Base made the demonstration available to the local news media Thursday.
The demonstration team conducted one of its last practices before its first airshow of the season at the Yuma Air Show March 13 and 14 at the Marine Corps Air Station in Yuma, Arizona.
That's part of a 20-city tour.
The "2020 Warriors over the Wasatch," air show is scheduled for June 27 and 28 at HAFB.
One the pilots of the Lightning II is Captain Kristin Wolfe.
She’s been an Air Force pilot for nearly nine years and has been flying the F 35A for the last two-and-a-half years.
After pulling nearly 9 G’s during this demonstration, Captain Wolfe calmly hopped out of her jet to describe some of the technical aspects of the aircraft as well as the primal joy of flying such an amazing machine.
"The coolest part is to know that you're the only one out there going to do the demo," said Captain Wolfe with the 388th Fighter Wing. "And to show people on the ground a little bit of what this jet is capable of and just make some noise and go loud and low and fast."
Captain Wolfe said her father, who was also a fighter pilot, was her greatest inspiration.
She hopes she can inspire others to follow in her path while conducting air shows all around the country this spring and summer.
