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Students in Coronado Try Out F-35 Simulator

A single fighter made for the Navy costs about $97 million

Future U.S. Navy officers got a declassified look at a cool new gadget Wednesday. The future of military technology is at Naval Base Coronado. 

College students are training to fly in stealth fighters by piloting an F-35 flight stimulator. 

"It's a little overwhelming at first," said Samantha Douglass, a student at the University of San Diego. "Especially seeing all the numbers on the screen." 

It's better to practice in the simulator before the real thing: each F-35 made for the Navy costs about $97 million. 

"It's like a flying computer chip," said Tom Halley, F-35 C business development manager for Lockheed Martin. "All the information on the ground, everywhere, comes into the aircraft." 

Halley said in older fighter models, the pilot also had to navigate radar. Now, they can focus their attention on flying. 

"We're able to take all that information and display it to the pilot on a screen," added Martin. 

The F-35 can soar through the sky at over 1,000 miles per hour. 

"After you look at it a while, you get to know what's important and what you need to know for flight," added Douglass. 

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