First Brit F35Bd take off from Ski Jump

[Wmaker]

Dodgy Buggahs only had a 360p camera, but good enough to see that it works.

HD film in Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/lmaeronautics/review/131439135/07c088ad82

[Gman]

Ah..pretty...thanks Wmaker.

Anyone else notice that the nozzle was at around 60 degrees or so on roll up to the ramp, and then after lifting off, rotated down to around 80 degrees or so, giving more "up" thrust and a bit less "forward".  I'm sure they have the wizzy F35 computers controlling this, I just wonder why it does it in this fashion. 

We had a thread last year in the aircraft/vehicles forum about the various pluses and minuses between CATOBAR and Ski jump decks Zoney, it was a long one with a ton of info and opinions, I'll find the link and post it later.  It started over the newer Mig29s and arguments about useful load on the commie ski jump decks, but evolved into a lot of links and info about gator Navy assault ships and British ski jumps and the QE decks.  Boo to ski jump!

[artik]

...Why would you not put a catapult on it?..

In general there are 3 types of modern carriers operating fixed wing aircraft:

CATOBAR - classic - takeoff with catapult and land with arresting wires

Currently 3 classes in active service

10  Nimitz class (100,000 mt)
1  Charles de Gaulle (42,000 mt)
1  São Paulo (32,800 mt, ex Foch) capable of operating A-4s

Ford 100,000mt class is under construction as well.

STOVL - many classes - all operating Harriers of different version

Takeoff using short run - all carriers with noticeable exception of USMC use ski-jump to improve takeoff performance
Landing - vertical

Largest are around 41,000mt - Wasp class - no ski-jump
Others using ski-jump are from 30,000 mt Italian Cavour to the smallest 13,850 mt Italian carrier Giuseppe Garibaldi

STOBAR - takeoff with ski-jump and landing with arresting wires

- Russian Admiral Kuznetsov and Chinese Liaoning  of Kuznetsov class (55,000-59,000 mt)
- Indian Vikramaditya (44,000mt)

And one under construction INS Vikrant - 40,000mt


Now as you can see, if you can operate STOVL capable aircraft like Harrier or F-35B - you can have much smaller (=affordable) carrier as you don't need complex facilities like catapult or arresting wire and huge flight deck.

For example latest EMALS catapult weights 225 mt, i.e. 4 catapults weight around 1% of Ford's tonnage. Steam catapults are around twice heavier (not including the requirement to have stream generation capabilities) so for a small carrier of 30,000 mt it is significant weight. You also need large deck for both takeoffs and landing and parking and more.

With Harriers you can have capable carrier with displacement of around 14,000mt - 1/7 of Nimitz - think of price.

Now ski-jump on its own is very simple device that significantly improves safety of operations and reduces takeoff run - because it gives initial climb to the aircraft even when its wings and engines can't sustain level flight yet - so it continues accelerating forward after the aircraft left a ski-jump and thus improving both maximal takeoff weight, reducing takeoff run and improving safety.

So operating F-35B from a small carriers with a ski-jump is actually great money saver for carrier operators yet providing a capable aircraft.

However the biggest problem of STOVL is actually having these aircraft. In the aviation history only 2 aircraft types were in service (Harrier and Yak-38) and now 1 is entering the service (F-35B) - and only one was actually successful - Harrier. Yak-38 was very raw aircraft and was removed from service due to many problems and availability of STOBAR option.

Another interesting option is STOBAR - the one India goes with today - use ski-jump instead of catapults - of course reducing price and simplifying aircraft handling with a limitation of requirement of a large deck space for takeoff and limiting simultaneous takeoff and landings.

Boo to ski jump!

Actually Boo to USMC for not using one and handicapping its carriers.

[Greebo]

The thing is the QE class aren't small carriers at around 70K tons and 920 ft long. There was a lot of debate about whether to go with catapults and arrestor wires while they are being designed. IIRC the carriers were designed to be able to convert to these if the F-35B got cancelled or the navy went that way for a future refit.

The main drawbacks of the STOVL setup on the QE class is the lower payload performance of the F-35B over the C and the lack of fixed wing AWACS. The advantages are cost, reliability and sortie rate.