UK carrier Queen Elizabeth leaves Portsmouth to conduct new flight trials of F-35 aircraft

The Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth set sail from Portsmouth on 7th June to carry out tests with the F-35 stealth jet in British waters for the latest time, the Queen Elizabeth announced via Twitter.

It’s the second time jets will have flown sorties from Queen Elizabeth’s four-acre flight deck in UK waters.

The deployment comes amid the coronavirus crisis, which saw two of the ship’s company being quarantined after testing positive for Covid-19.

Embarked on HMS Queen Elizabeth will be aviators and engineers from 617 Squadron, the UK’s premier aerial team who are tasked with flying the F-35B Lightning force.

Supporting them will be 250 engineers, who joined the ship in Portsmouth over the weekend.

The trials are seen as a huge milestone in the ship’s historic journey towards her first operational mission next year.