In his role as a pilot with the Marine Corps air demonstration team, Maj. Craig Norris flew the F-35B Lightning II at airshows along the West Coast in 2024. While the fighter aircraft’s capabilities intrigued spectators, they were most interested in one specific issue.
“The first question we always get is, ‘Hey, is there air conditioning in there?'” Norris said.
Norris answered that question on a recent episode of “The Fighter Pilot Podcast,” where Maj. Craig Turner — his replacement for this airshow season — joined him for a discussion with host and former Navy fighter pilot Vincent “Jell-O” Aiello.
Norris and Turner come from military families, serve as Fleet Replacement Squadron (FRS) instructors in California and are highly experienced in the F-35B. At the time of the podcast, Norris was approaching 1,000 flight hours and Turner more than 600 in the advanced aircraft.
First flown by the Marines in 2015, the F-35B is a fifth-generation fighter that can reach speeds of nearly 1,200 mph and is the first supersonic aircraft capable of short takeoff and vertical landings, or STOVL. Its highly sophisticated stealth technology also can make it nearly undetectable to enemy radar.
On “The Fighter Pilot Podcast,” Norris and Turner discuss how they juggle the responsibilities of flight instructors with being on the demo team, the importance of ground crews in allowing them to do what they do, the requirements for being an airshow pilot, the various maneuvers they perform and how they got their callsigns (“Brembo” for Norris, “Chuckles” for Turner), among other topics.
You can find the complete episode below. For more about “The Fighter Pilot Podcast,” please check out its website. And if you’re interested in watching the Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II airshow demonstration team perform, its 2025 schedule is available here.
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Related: What the Life of a Navy Fighter Pilot Really Looks Like
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