Arthur Tomassetti (born 1964) is a retired United States Marine Corps colonel, combat veteran, and test pilot who is notable for his work on the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) and F35 Lightning II. During twenty-one years on the programs, he worked in key roles developing pilot interfaces, testing aircraft capabilities, fielding aircraft to operational units, and establishing the F-35 training organization that certifies US and international pilots and maintainers.
Tomassetti set multiple records and is the first Marine to have flown all three variants of the Lockheed Martin X-35. He completed the final leg of the first cross-country flight of the X35C and is the only test pilot to have flown all three variants of the X35 in addition to the F-35. Tomassetti was the pilot of the first-ever mission to combine short takeoff, level supersonic dash, and vertical landing in a single flight.
Tomassetti served in increasingly responsible positions in the aerospace industry and was president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots. He was also recognized as a fellow of the society and received its Tony LeVier Flight Test Safety Award.
Early life and education Tomassetti was born in 1964 in Port Chester, New York, a village in the south-east part of the state on its border with Connecticut. He had childhood ambitions of becoming an astronaut. NASA's early astronauts were selected from the ranks of military test pilots, and Tomassetti felt that following this path could increase his chances of success. Tomassetti went to St. Thomas Aquinas High School, a private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory high school in Florida. He attended Northwestern University in Illinois and was accepted into the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps (NROTC). Tomassetti graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering and a commission in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Tomassetti credited his instructors and mentors at these facilities with teaching him important lessons in teamwork, commitment, and doing one's best.
During his military career, Tomassetti attended the Expeditionary Warfare School at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia, in 1994. He also earned a Master of Science degree in aviation systems from the University of Tennessee in 2001 and graduated from the USMC Command and Staff College in 2002.
Military career
AV-8B Harrier II In 1986, Tomassetti entered active duty and attended The Basic School. In 1987, he was selected to attend flight training at Naval Air Station Chase Field in Beeville, Texas, and transitioned to training in the AV-8B Harrier II in 1988 at Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Cherry Point, North Carolina. From 1989 to 1991, Tomassetti was assigned as a flight officer in the "Tigers" of VMA-542 with whom he made deployments to the Western Pacific and Persian Gulf.
Gulf War
Less than a week after Iraq invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, VMA-542 was ordered to deploy to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Desert Shield. With the squadron of twenty AV-8Bs, Tomassetti flew from North Carolina to southern Bahrain and arrived at Sheik Isa Air Base on August 21. He spent the next two months preparing for combat by flying training missions and "standing alerts" in which pilots took turns sitting in or near their armed aircraft, ready to scramble on short notice in the event of hostilities. The squadron moved closer to the expected area of conflict on November 4–5, repositioning to the King Abdul Aziz Naval Base and airfield complex in Saudi Arabia near the Kuwaiti border. Tomassetti and the squadron continued to fly training sorties with a focus on close air support missions intended to protect ground troops that would soon engage enemy forces.
The combat phase of the Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, began on the morning of January 17, 1991. VMA-542's first combat missions began a few hours later and continued on every day of the conflict. Tomassetti's missions were split between close air support under the direction of a forward air controller and armed reconnaissance within a designated kill box where any identifiable targets could be attacked. Desert Storm ended on February 28; in the 43 days of combat throughout the Kuwaiti theatre of operations, Tomassetti completed 39 combat missions in the AV-8B. He returned home after the Gulf War and performed in various roles of increasing responsibility with a focus on weapons and the tactics to effectively employ them. In 1992, he attended the USMC Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI) course at Marine Corps Air Station Yuma and conveyed these lessons to the pilots of VMA-542 and VMA-513.
Test pilot Tomassetti continued to pursue his goal of becoming a test pilot. He applied to the highly competitive program but was turned down. Despite being discouraged, Tomassetti persisted and was accepted on his seventh request. He attended the United States Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland, and graduated with class 112 in December 1997. Tomassetti's next assignment was anticipated to be testing updates to legacy aircraft, but he unexpectedly received an offer to join the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) effort. Although his role on the team was not defined, Tomassetti chose the rare opportunity to work on a new aircraft that had not yet left the drawing board.
X-35 demonstrators
The competition phase of the Joint Strike Fighter program was underway in 1997 while Tomassetti was a student at the test pilot school. The scope of the effort was considerable, intended to replace a wide range of existing fighter, strike and ground attack aircraft, including the Air Force's F16s and A-10s; the Marine Corps' AV-8Bs, F/A-18s, and EA-6Bs; and the Navy's F/A-18A/B/C/Ds. To reduce risk, two concept demonstrator aircraft prototypes were to be built by each contracting team. The Air Force conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) version would validate flight performance, the Marine short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) version (converted from the CTOL air frame) would demonstrate vertical flight characteristics needed to replace the AV-8B, and the Navy's Carrier Variant (CV) would establish the low-speed handling qualities required for carrier flight operations. In 1998, Tomassetti was assigned as a test pilot with the "Salty Dogs" of VX-23 and started work with the Lockheed Martin (LM) team that was building the X-35.
Over the next three and a half years, Tomassetti worked with the Lockheed team to bring the X-35 from a concept to a functioning aircraft. He was one of only eight civilian and military pilots to fly the X35. He became the US government's lead test pilot and was their only pilot to fly all three variants of the X35. He became the first Marine to fly the X35A on November 10, 2000, at Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) in California. On February 10, 2001, he flew the X35C from Fort Worth, Texas, to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, completing the second and final leg of the first cross-country flight of a JSF demonstrator. The Patuxent River facility, located at sea level, reproduced aircraft carrier conditions more closely than the high desert of Edwards AFB. After the X35A CTOL aircraft was modified into X35B STOVL form, Tomassetti became the first Marine to fly the aircraft on June 29, 2001, at Edwards AFB. Lockheed Martin's JSF vice president, Tom Burbage, described the flight as a milestone for the program, stating, "Getting a U.S. Marine in the X35B's cockpit represents a critical step forward in our flight test program, because this is the airplane Marine pilots will rely upon in the future".
X-35B Mission X "Hat Trick"
Drawing on experiences from the F-22 program, Lockheed Martin sought a striking way to promote the X-35 over project competitor Boeing's X-32. Harry Blot, LM's deputy JSF program manager, conceived the "Mission X" demonstration to showcase several capabilities. The experimental flight consisted of a short takeoff, level supersonic flight, and a vertical landing, which had not been accomplished before in a single flight. Mission X was also known as the program's "hat trick" which is a term for three goals scored by one ice hockey player (and other sports) in a single game. According to Tomassetti, "Hat Trick" was also used as the call sign of all X35 test pilots. To further increase attention, a colorful Hat Trick logo consisting of a magician's hat with three aces was painted on the vertical stabilizers during the two-month conversion of the X35A into the X35B.
Mission X was successfully completed on July 20, 2001, at Edwards AFB with Tomassetti at the controls. He thus became the first pilot to fly an aircraft in three regimes of flight (short takeoff, supersonic dash, and vertical landing) in a single sortie. Tomassetti called Mission X the highlight of flying the X35. X35B testing continued through August 6, setting multiple records. Aviation author Erik Simonsen called the X-35B flight test program one of the shortest and most effective on record.
F-35 Lightning II
Lockheed Martin won the Joint Strike Fighter competition in October 2001, and the program transitioned from X-planes to building the F-35. As the US Marine representative, Tomassetti stayed with the program where he prepared flight test plans, improved cockpit controls and displays, and developed operating manuals. An area of special interest to Tomassetti was reducing the complexity of flying the F35. Having experienced the difficulties of flying the Harrier during the Gulf War, he looked for opportunities to ensure that F-35 pilots could spend more time focused on combat rather than routine flight actions. Methods to reduce complexity and pilot workload have been an active area of research across the industry. As stated by Tomassetti's fellow F-35 pilot, Jon Beesley, "The best fighting we do is with our minds, and we can do that more effectively if we are spending less time flying".
In 2003, Tomassetti appeared on the Discovery HD show, Secrets of Future Air Power, and described the stealth, ground attack, and data networking capabilities of the F35. In June 2004, he left the Lockheed facility at Fort Worth and returned to NAS Patuxent River as chief test pilot of VX-23, where he continued to perform flight testing related to the F-35.
Military commands In December 2005, Tomassetti was assigned as the commanding officer of VX-23, responsible for flight testing the F-35B, F-35C and other US Navy and USMC jet aircraft. From June 2007 to June 2009, he commanded the Marine Aviation Detachment at NAS Patuxent River, where he supported Naval Air Systems Command with the acquisition, development, and support of naval aeronautical and related technology systems for service members.
By late 2009, the F-35 program had progressed to a point where a facility to train F35 pilots and maintainers would soon be needed. The 33rd Fighter Wing (FW) at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was chosen to switch from its Air Combat Command roots to Air Education and Training Command and tasked with creating the first F-35 training unit. Tomassetti was assigned as the vice commander of the wing. The initial step was to establish the operations and maintenance groups needed before the pilots and aircraft began to arrive in another ten months. By late January 2010, the unit had more than one hundred personnel selected from civilian and military services. While his boss was away for training, Tomassetti was assigned as acting commander of the wing, providing him a unique perspective of commanding units from three different services—Navy, Marines, and Air Force.