{"id":60586,"date":"2025-08-24T22:25:50","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T20:25:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=60586"},"modified":"2025-08-29T21:19:22","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T19:19:22","slug":"a-rare-formation-flight-of-an-f-35b-stealth-fighter-and-two-harrier-ii-plus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/08\/24\/a-rare-formation-flight-of-an-f-35b-stealth-fighter-and-two-harrier-ii-plus\/","title":{"rendered":"A rare formation flight of an F-35B stealth fighter and two Harrier II Plus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The already veteran AV-8B Harrier II Plus fighter is living out its final days in the United States Marine Corps (USMC).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/08\/03\/the-end-of-the-operational-life-of-a-harrier-ii-plus-and-the-process-to-send-it-to-a-museum\/\">The end of the operational life of a Harrier II Plus and the process to send it to a museum<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2023\/09\/23\/a-great-demonstration-of-a-marine-harrier-ii-in-cleveland-before-its-farewell\/\">A great demonstration of a Marine Harrier II in Cleveland before its farewell<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>Currently, <strong>there is only one Harrier II squadron left in the Marines: VMA-223 \"Bulldogs\"<\/strong>, based at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina. Founded on May 1, 1942 (during World War II), <strong>the unit has been flying the Harrier II since 1987 and is scheduled to retire in September 2026<\/strong>, making way for the F-35B, the STOVL version of this sophisticated stealth fighter.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742438550_99d69c644e_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742438550_5a82e68bc8_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">A Harrier II Plus from VMA-223 next to two AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles in a photo taken May 8, 2025, at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvidshub.net\/image\/9245688\/us-marines-with-marine-attack-squadron-223-prepare-av-8b-harriers-ordnance-training\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">U.S. Marine Corps \/ Lance Cpl. Bryan Giraldo<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>On June 28-29, VMA-223 participated in the National Cherry Festival Airshow<\/strong> in Traverse City, Michigan. There, two Harrier IIs from the aforementioned squadron coincided with <strong>two F-35Bs from VMFAT-501 \"Warlords\"<\/strong>, a training unit based at MCAS Beaufort, South Carolina. <strong>That airshow saw something rare: a formation flight of two Harrier II Plus aircraft and an F-35B, its successor<\/strong>. Yesterday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@PrestonMonoc\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Preston Monoc<\/a> posted an excellent video showing that formation flight and part of the F-35B display below:<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"USMC AV-8B HARRIER &amp; F-35B Lightning II - Ultra Rare Flyby - National Cherry Festival Airshow 2025\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ashqJ-R790o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>You can see some screenshots from the video here. <strong>Here's the F-35B that participated in the display, 169293 BF-51 (501)<\/strong>, flown by Lt. Col. Thomas K. \"Brick\" Whitesel:<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242197_4ea1f8080c_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242197_2dacc72fd8_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>One of the Harrier II Plus aircraft that participated in this display, 165592 (06)<\/strong>, piloted by Major I. \"Babs\" Sharbel.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242182_5d5a0b9c93_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242182_db1c1d7d96_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>The other Harrier II in this formation flight, 165427 (25)<\/strong>. The pilot's name is not indicated in his cockpit.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242187_36b85cce7f_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54741242187_f4d95fc06c_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Next we see Harrier II 165427 (25) flying in formation with Lieutenant Colonel Whitesel's F-35B<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742438525_8f0af367e6_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742438525_9b41b5aa8d_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Finally, <strong>two photos of the F-35B and the Harrier IIs in formation<\/strong>. On the left is Harrier II 165427 (25), flying on the starboard side of the F-35B, and on the right we see 165592 (06). A historic flight that we are unlikely to see again.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742300398_4ddab1c158_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742300398_2ffa6bdb4a_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742300348_e938f6753a_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54742300348_b2ddc9d9ed_c.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The already veteran AV-8B Harrier II Plus fighter is living out its final days in the United States Marine Corps (USMC).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11545],"tags":[7072,1112,17806,25114,25115,10431,673,20185,13067],"class_list":["post-60586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-navy","tag-lockheed-martin-f-35-lightning-ii","tag-mcdonnell-douglas-av-8b-harrier-ii","tag-michigan","tag-national-cherry-festival-airshow","tag-traverse-city","tag-united-states","tag-us-marine-corps","tag-vma-223-bulldogs","tag-vmfat-501-warlords"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60586\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}