F-35B

[Rich46yo]

I'm thinking it's one gust away from losing controlled flight. Fortunately there are no wind gusts underway.

Yathink they maybe took that into account for a VTOL thats to operate in the open ocean? Its not like the first one ever built or operated.

[Seanaldinho]

Fly by wire should take care of most wind gusts or turbulence.

[bustr]

Can the three variants of this aircraft do the job they are designed to do and beat our current and projected enemies?

F-35A CTOL - USAF
F-35B STOVL  - Marines
F-35C CV - NAVY

[Seanaldinho]

Driving to the beach today saw my first B model. It was on final as I drove by Eglin and they are a stout little airplane  

The funny part was a Marine F-18 with full drop tanks (the 35 was bare) was behind it. Doing, as my dad calls it, "watching for parts that fall off".

Anywho if an F-18 needs full drop tanks to stay up with it the entire flight I bet it has a fairly decent combat radius  

[Babalonian]

Driving to the beach today saw my first B model. It was on final as I drove by Eglin and they are a stout little airplane 

The funny part was a Marine F-18 with full drop tanks (the 35 was bare) was behind it. Doing, as my dad calls it, "watching for parts that fall off".

Anywho if an F-18 needs full drop tanks to stay up with it the entire flight I bet it has a fairly decent combat radius 

Actualy, this may of been a refueling-pod equiped super hornet (more likely if this was a two-seater) taging along to "watch for parts fallign off" and to provide the milk bottle when needed, to the untrained eye these look like normal DT pods (and because they're ferrying fuel usually it is carrying a full load of drop tanks in addition to one of these). 

If anything I believe the F-35B has the shortest range of all the F-35 variants (less internal capacity) and if I recall it sucks up quite a bit doing the VTOL bit. 

Also, and this is pure speculation from me, I don't know if the F-35 has gotten approval for it's own DTs or extra fuel stores, but I do believe it has been (and has been for a while now) aprooved for mid-air refueling.


FWIW, my money is still on the only thing that it beats the F-18 to will be its retirement date.

[Mickthestick]

At $200m plus per unit, systems like this will bankrupt us faster than any enemy will defeat us on the battlefield. Sorry to all the flag-wavers out there, but these wonder-weapons are about as practical as a solid gold Ferrari.

Until the DoD finds a way to make high-tech affordable, we're just making a show of shooting ourselves in the foot.

[Seanaldinho]

Actualy, this may of been a refueling-pod equiped super hornet (more likely if this was a two-seater) taging along to "watch for parts fallign off" and to provide the milk bottle when needed, to the untrained eye these look like normal DT pods (and because they're ferrying fuel usually it is carrying a full load of drop tanks in addition to one of these). 

If anything I believe the F-35B has the shortest range of all the F-35 variants (less internal capacity) and if I recall it sucks up quite a bit doing the VTOL bit. 

Also, and this is pure speculation from me, I don't know if the F-35 has gotten approval for it's own DTs or extra fuel stores, but I do believe it has been (and has been for a while now) aprooved for mid-air refueling.


FWIW, my money is still on the only thing that it beats the F-18 to will be its retirement date.

No VTOL here yet. They are still breaking in the birds and letting the soon to be instructor pilots get comfortable with them (that single seat thing makes it tough to teach the instructors). Also I dont think the 18 was a 2 seater because that thought did come to mind but only after I had seen them.

[Seanaldinho]

Interesting, just found out the F-35 I saw was being flown here from Texas and it is the first British plane manufactured. A Brit flew it from Texas to here and soon we will have more British birds arriving here.

Its the 8th B model at Eglin with 9 A models already on the flight line.