Military Transformers Edit
The USMC F-35B STOVL Lands Vertically

It’s hard to watch this video of the F-35B STOVL Joint Strike Fighter and not think of the word ‘badass.’ The military loves their acronyms, and STOVL stands for Short Takeoff/Vertical Landing, one of the aircraft’s key features. This variant of the F-35B will be rolled out for the US Marine Corps and the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

Designing a fighter plane with the capability to basically hover is no simple task. The F-35B features a shaft-driven lift fan—made by none other than Rolls-Royce—to help with the crucial ratio of vertical lift and weight that allows the aircraft to land vertically.

The F-35B is currently in an 86% scale operating model stage. There is a ton of testing that must be completed before the F35B can be officially rolled out, but from the looks of this video, the fighter jet will be worth the wait.