First night take-off by US Navy F-35C

A US Navy pilot in a F-35C Lightning II carrier variant carries out the first carrier-based night flight aboard the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN-68) on 13 November 2013.

The aircraft launched at 6:01 p.m. (PST) and conducted a series of planned touch-and-go landings before making an arrested landing at 6:40 pm. The crew of the Nimitz hosted the F-35 Lightning II Pax River Integrated Test Force from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) during the initial sea trials of the F-35C, which wrapped up on 14 November.

The trials ended with pilots in F35C test aircraft CF-3 and CF-5 performing 124 arrested landings; 222 touch-and-goes; two bolters, both intentional for test purposes; and 124 catapult launches on thirty-two flights covering 38.6 flight hours.