While the first eastbound transatlantic crossing of a Dutch F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) in May will be a major coup for the program as a whole, the visit will be more about building community relations. 
The Netherlands defense ministry wants to prove the F-35 will be a good neighbor to the communities surrounding the two air bases that will host the fighter from 2019, Volkel and Leeuwarden.
Those living near Volkel, an air station between the cities of Nijmegen and Eindhoven, and Leeuwarden, in the very north of the country, have long been familiar with the noise levels produced by the F-16 Fighting Falcon. But the F-35 is an unknown quantity.
It has already been established that the JSF produces higher noise levels than the F100 engines of the F-16A/Bs currently in operation. But noise-management studies released by the F-35 Joint Program Office state F-35As produce more noise in some configurations than even later F-16 models fitted with the more powerful F100-200/220.


Refueling certification from the Royal Netherlands Air Force’s KDC-10 tanker was a prerequisite for the F-35’s deployment to Holland. Credit: U.S. Air Force/Christopher Okula

In the U.S. these concerns have led to lawsuits. In one extreme case, a community coalition called “Stop the F-35” was formed to prevent the aircraft from being based at Burlington ANGS in Vermont.
The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF) hopes the Dutch deployment will allow the locals to judge the difference, if any, for themselves.
“Everybody’s hearing is different, and everyone’s perception of noise is different,” says Lt. Col. Sidney Plankman, head of RNLAF public affairs, who has been involved in setup of the studies and the F-35 deployment.
“This is not about getting people up to the fence to see the aircraft but to examine the impact of the noise on those people during a typical day,” says Plankman.
Over the next few weeks, the air force will begin notifying local communities of the dates and times that F-35 flights will be performed at Volkel and Leeuwarden, and they will ask for feedback in near realtime, using a website questionnaire as the aircraft are flying. There will be alternative surveys for those without Internet connectivity.
Respondents will be asked if they noticed any difference in aircraft noise as the F-35 flew, and if so, how they perceived it: Was it louder or just different from the F-16 noise levels they are used to? Data from the questionnaire will be analyzed by a team from the Netherlands Aerospace Center (NLR).
“We perform many studies on the environmental impact at different airports, but this will be the first time we have recorded data in real time as the flights take place,” says Arjan de Jong, F-35 project manager at the NLR.Plankman says the test flights will probably take place toward the end of the day, when most people are home, in order to gather as much data as possible on the impact of the noises.
The F-35s will fly circuits and missed approaches, just as the F-16s would do on any given operational day. “We hope to make the data available as quickly as possible,” says Plankman.
Over the years, similar studies have resulted in changes to flight profiles. The small town of Marssum sits right on the approach or departure path to Leeuwarden airbase. If the wind direction means fighters would depart over the town, aircraft are requested to make a sharp right-hand turn after takeoff in order to avoid the village.
The tests build on research by the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment and the NLR, which were requested by members of the Dutch parliament in 2013 to look into measuring military aircraft noise around the two bases in readiness for the F-35’s introduction.
One option is to install a system of noise-monitoring systems in the vicinity of the airbases to ensure that the noise will not have an impact on the health of those living nearby.
Noise perception is one thing, but public acceptance is another, so the Netherlands is eager to trot out the F-35. The Dutch aircraft’s appearance in the static display at the air force’s Open Dagen (Open Day) air show on June 10-11 will trump—by a month—the debut of the F-35A and B at two British air shows in July.
The last major hurdle to the deployment was the clearing of aerial refueling of the F-35 by the RNLAF’s Douglas KDC-10 tanker aircraft at the end of March, during trials at Edwards AFB, California.
If all goes to plan, on a yet-to-be-announced date in late May, both the F-35A and the KDC-10 will make the transcontinental flight from Edwards to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, staying there overnight before making the transatlantic crossing.
The aircraft will return to the U.S.  on June 14 after the Open Dagen. Locals will not see the aircraft again until 2019, when the first deliveries arrive from the Italian final assembly and checkout facility.