ONE of the new state-of-the-art military F-35 Lightning jets visited Bournemouth Airport on Tuesday evening as part of a training exercise.
The visit the RAF's latest fifth generation fighter plane, which can reach speeds of 1227mph (mach 1.6), could be heard for miles around as it sped around the night's sky.
An RAF spokesperson told the Daily Echo: "An RAF F-35 Marham, in Norfolk, completed a practice diversion to Bournemouth airfield on the evening of Tuesday, September 26 as part of its night flying training.
"Four civilian airfields were used across the country on Tuesday night and Bournemouth was one of them."
The first frontline Lightning unit, 617 Sqn 'Dambusters', was expected to arrive at RAF Marham in spring/summer this year, with work being carried out to achieving initial operating capability in December.
Once in full use, the Lightning will operate alongside the iconic Typhoon, which recently visited Bournemouth Airport as part of a special RAF 100 celebration event.
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