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RE: F-35B sea trials....

brad kaste

brad kaste

Charter Member
RE: F-35B sea trials....


This video link is fresh (for the public). It was made just six weeks ago in the Atlantic, just off Newport News ( Hampton Roads), Virginia .

These are the latest sea trials of the F-35B on the USS Wasp. They were very successful, with 74 VL's and STO's in a three week period.

The media and the program critics had predicted that the aircraft would burn holes in the deck and wash sailors overboard.

Neither of which happened. You will notice a sailor standing on the bow of the ship as the jet rotates.

That was an intentional part of the sea trials.

No catapult … No hook....It’s a new world out there!

The shape and scope of warfare – worldwide – just changed.

Click your mouse here: F-35B
 
Seeing it operate with that huge door on top reminds me of the F-111 having to open the speedbrake to get the gear down. Although I realise its just like an intake tunnel and really shouldn't add a huge amount of drag - it just LOOKS like it should.
 
Lateral-G said:
That's a lot of moving parts to have to count on when you need to land.......
Click to expand...

Can't be any worse than a helicopter. :icon_lol: Is just a day in the life of aviation. You do have to wonder though what happens if the lift fan seizes or something like that when the plane is trying to hover.. That would be one of my major concerns. Especially with a lot of the shaft rubbing incidents, and now diaphram coupling breaks that are beginning to happen as the airframes age. That would be my concern depending on flight hours many years down the road as that could lead to a pretty catostrophic mishap.
 
Roadburner440 said:
Can't be any worse than a helicopter. :icon_lol: Is just a day in the life of aviation. You do have to wonder though what happens if the lift fan seizes or something like that when the plane is trying to hover.. That would be one of my major concerns. Especially with a lot of the shaft rubbing incidents, and now diaphragm coupling breaks that are beginning to happen as the airframes age. That would be my concern depending on flight hours many years down the road as that could lead to a pretty catastrophic mishap.
Click to expand...

WOW, very nice. I could see a lot of changes if the F-35 was produced. However, a big concern for me would be how much each one costs, and the financial loss each time one goes into the drink. That's a bunch of money to lose if a plane malfunctions on landing, approach, etc. Also takeoffs are not without incidents. Looks far safer than what we have now, but....
 
RE: F-35B sea trials

Nice video thanks for the link, Let's just hope Congress doesn't Ax it. While were on the subject is there
anyone here up to the challenge to model this for FS9 and X?
 
IRIS did a pretty good job of modeling the F-35, and with the VTOL/HOVER tweak package by Rob Barendregt (RCBhce10.zip), the F-35 does a really great job of VTOL and STOL and is a real joy to fly.

You can get the F-35 from the IRIS Simulations site....and it's FREE!

OBIO
 
Lateral-G said:
That's a lot of moving parts to have to count on when you need to land.......
Click to expand...

There's a lot of hardware that is only used on take-off and landing (Fan, gearboxes, drive shafts, doors top and bottom, actuators etc. ) which take up space and add weight.
I know that this is 21st century engineering and materials but, without researching, I'm sure there were various similar concepts proposed in the late 1950's and early 1960's.
One of the reasons the Harrier was the more successful was it's relative simplicity - basically one powerful engine with a big by-pass fan and very little that was not being used in the whole flight envelope.
 
The Lift Fan is exceptionally reliable and the fan and clutch-gearbox are designed to operate for a full minute with 100% interruption of the oil supply while still transferring full power at the 90 degree angle to the fan. The system has been tested under extreme and prolonged conditions and has met and exceeded all benchmarks. The 3-bearing nozzle has performed equally as well. The tests continue. What is being changed are the inlet door actuators to a lighter, stronger, and more reliable design which will be installed on the very next airframe lots. While the core components of the engine/lift fan system are proving robust, one of the concerns has always been the axillary doors(the fan inlet & exhaust and lower rear nozzle doors). The current single lift fan inlet door design is much better/more simplistic than the original multi hinged doors which had more actuators and hinge points. It was fragile and inherently more at risk for failures and/or damage. The rule of thumb of minimizing the number of moving parts/total parts and weight is paramount. I think they're getting there but it was a given from the start the the B model was going to take longer and cost more. I have zero doubt it will perform extremely well when the tests and updating are complete not unlike any new high end fighter. The early prototypes shattered all the Harrier and Yak-141 records and then some and the pilots report the handling is vastly superior and safer than Harrier and with 2 times more power. The downside to this aircraft will be the maintenance costs/hours. There is a huge degree of quick changeout modularity designed to speed up maintenance on the F-35 but since the B has more complexity, it will be more involved a process obviously. Also, to maintain stealth integrity, they will have to perform the post-maint rcs check which is done to all stealth types. I hear lots of gripes out of people I know who worked in the F-22 community and similar things out of the B-2 community. There's a lot of new info coming on the status of the different F-35 variants soon.
 
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