Vertical landings hit the mark in F-35B's tests

The crew of the Wasp hasn't gone far since leaving Norfolk in early October. The amphibious assault ship has spent weeks steaming through a small, pie-shaped wedge of water off Virginia's eastern shore. It doesn't stray more than 12 miles from land.

Despite its geographic confinement, the Wasp is making history. Test pilots have been flying two test versions of the next generation Marine fighter jet - the F-35B - onto and off of the ship's flight deck for weeks, the first time the models have operated at sea.

It will be years until the single- engine fighters are ready for deployment. But after more than a decade of development, significant cost overruns and criticism from top Pentagon leaders, the F-35B is finally proving that it is a supersonic fighter capable of short takeoffs and vertical landings on ships.

Although similar to the models that will be flown by the Air Force and Navy, the Marine version of the F-35 has special requirements for operating from amphibious assault ships. Unlike aircraft carriers, amphibious ships lack catapults for launching jets and arresting wires for recovering them. Because of that, takeoffs and landings appear far less violent than similar operations on aircraft carriers.

But the F-35B will be the first supersonic fighter jet to operate from an amphibious ship - meaning the Navy could eventually use its eight Wasp-class multipurpose amphibious assault ships as small aircraft carriers.