Crown Jewel: The Battle for the Falklands (17 page)
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Authors: Peter von Bleichert
With canted tails that jutted from either side of a single engine’s gaping maw, the sleek jet sported a golden canopy above forward-leaning engine inlets, diamond-shaped wings, and a sharp faceted beak. Any opening in the fuselage—the vent for its lift fan, the doors for its landing gear, or the windows for its myriad sensors—was accentuated by saw-toothed, radar deceiving lines. This F-35 Lightning II ‘Bravo,’ a short take-off and vertical landing version of the new fifth-generation multirole fighter, had been built for the United States Marine Corps. However, at this time, the airplane was needed elsewhere, needed by an age-old friend, and had gladly been shifted from inventory.
Within
Stockham
’s hold, an American sailor sprayed olive-drab paint over the starred and winged roundel already there, over unit numbers on the aircraft’s empennages, and the word: ‘MARINES’ that adorned its tail. When the paint had dried, the sailors applied new stencils to the Lightning II’s radar-absorbent material, and began to spray colors. When peeled back, the first stencil left behind a red, white, and blue bulls-eye that, through history, has graced Avros, Bristols, Sopwiths, Hawkers and Supermarines, and British Aerospace, and Eurofighter aircraft. With a whiff of polyester urethane Jet Glo Express, this proud bulls-eye now shined on a Lockheed Martin creation, and it would shield an island. Proud of his work, the sailor waved away help from another, and chose to apply another stencil by himself. He carefully taped it into position on the aircraft’s tail and sprayed the body of the F-35B. The sailor removed the paper outline. He revealed the name of the new owner of this Lightning II:
‘ROYAL NAVY.’
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