F-35 test aircraft breaks sound barrier for first time

If you thought you heard a sonic boom Thursday afternoon, you probably did.

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 test aircraft broke the sound barrier for the first time, topping out at Mach 1.05 — about 680 miles per hour — during a test flight.

Lockheed test pilot Jon Beesley was at the controls for the one-hour test flight, which occurred between 2 and 3 p.m. at 30,000 feet over the range between Fort Worth and Wichita Falls. "The airplane performed pretty much like we thought it would," Beesley said in a brief interview afterward.

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