Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF)

Ainen said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1465670971243876355
View: https://twitter.com/TheDEWLine/status/1465670971243876355

FFcb-jYXoA8Rg8d


FFcb-j8WQAYnjDL

Photo source: Steve Trimble

Something on something.
Not sure if it's a EW pod(shape?) and that's definitely not an F-35 (and frankly speaking seems a bit too well-made to be a "generic 5th gen fighter")

But for lack of a better idea, let it be in the F-35 topic for now.
Click to expand...
Any mention of the under wing root conformal pods in those pics?
 
SteveO said:
Ainen said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/1465670971243876355
View: https://twitter.com/TheDEWLine/status/1465670971243876355

FFcb-jYXoA8Rg8d


FFcb-j8WQAYnjDL

Photo source: Steve Trimble

Something on something.
Not sure if it's a EW pod(shape?) and that's definitely not an F-35 (and frankly speaking seems a bit too well-made to be a "generic 5th gen fighter")

But for lack of a better idea, let it be in the F-35 topic for now.
Click to expand...
Any mention of the under wing root conformal pods in those pics?
Click to expand...

I think it's just a fairly low fidelity model. Trimble has followed up, BTW. Raytheon says the pod is just an artist's concept, not a model of any specific system or proposal.
 
LowObservable said:

The fan is engaged and turning before STO is initiated, but fan IGVs are set to minimal thrust - indeed the core nozzle may be deflected downwards to keep weight on nosewheel and assure steering (on a moving deck for instance).

If the fan cover was left on, the simple fix is to attach a mirror to the inlet door, like the ones in an Airbus overhead bin. But that can't be checked on the walkaround because the inlet door opening is part of the transition sequence initiated by the pilot, with the engine running.
Click to expand...
From some reports it seems more like one of the intake covers was left inside the truncking where the S-duct meant it couldn't be seen during walk around inspection. From what I hear the ground crew sometimes would fold them double and use them as kneepads when inspecting the intakes.

The other version also circulating is that it was loose on the deck and got sucked it after wond caught it.

Both of those seem a lot more plausible that forgetting an entire fan cover in place. Something that would have been visible from Flyco at the very least. But as all this talk currently is - its speculation. Hopefully we find out some day what actually happened.
 
Having looked at a few pictures, I'm wondering if when on the flight deck, they dont use the covers, hardly any pictures show them, even when lashed down. Where as when in the hangar, the normal intake covers and pitot covers are visible. Covers on deck would be a nightmare, blowing off, blowing away etc. So my suspicion goes back to the jet coming out of the hangar and someone didnt remove something. Time will tell.
 
Fluff said:
sferrin said:
GTX said:
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/d...reckage-is-found-in-the-mediterranean-3478067
Click to expand...
Uhm, why couldn't we just park an SSN or destroyer in the area and not let the Russians (or Chinese) near it? It's not like it's their property.
Click to expand...
The CV would have had an escort, which I assume has stayed in the area, lots of ships in the med, on ship tracker....
Click to expand...
An interesting point however the wreck is in international water IIRC so that might be problematic.
 
NMaude said:
Fluff said:
sferrin said:
GTX said:
https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/d...reckage-is-found-in-the-mediterranean-3478067
Click to expand...
Uhm, why couldn't we just park an SSN or destroyer in the area and not let the Russians (or Chinese) near it? It's not like it's their property.
Click to expand...
The CV would have had an escort, which I assume has stayed in the area, lots of ships in the med, on ship tracker....
Click to expand...
An interesting point however the wreck is in international water IIRC so that might be problematic.
Click to expand...
I'm not an expert on salvage law, but I imagine the RN ship will tell any callers that the aircraft is not abandoned, and if they attempt to access it we will fire on our aircraft. Of course the russians will be sniffing around, but I doubt they can get there quicker than Nato can, from Italy, and would hope a suitable ship was dispatched immediately after the accident.
 
https://www.defensenews.com/digital...ftware-capability-but-a-90-reduced-footprint/
The company unveiled the F-35 Mission Rehearsal Trainer Lightning Integrated Training Environment, or MRT LITE simulator.

Etz said the F-35 Full Mission Simulator, which is set up in a dome with 360-degree visuals for a full cockpit experience, is the most widely used F-35 training system, with more than 100 trainers delivered across the globe.

MRT LITE runs the same software in a pared-down footprint — 90% less hardware, the company noted, with eight MRT LITEs fitting within the allotted space of a full mission simulator.

The LITE version has three screens for forward-looking views only, “but there’s a need for more capacity at a number of those [global training] sites. So based on that need, we decided to go ahead and embark some internal investments to shrink the footprint associated with the full-mission sim and created a device, a family of devices, that will provide capacity at fixed sites,” Etz said.
Click to expand...
 
Last edited:
bring_it_on said:
Are those sales or deliveries for the other four fighters?
Click to expand...
I believe those are production numbers, so pretty apples to apples.

More interesting is the number of flight hours per aircraft… ~175 hours/year since Jan 2021.

This is still a tad low compared to other fighter fleets (the Rafale is around 235 hrs/year and I believe the Super Hornet is up there too actually the USN Super Hornet fleet is also averaging ~175 hours/year. However the legacy USN/USMC Hornet and Growler fleets both fly ~275 hours/year, as do USAF F-15Es).
 
Last edited:
H_K said:
bring_it_on said:
Are those sales or deliveries for the other four fighters?
Click to expand...
I believe those are production numbers, so pretty apples to apples.

More interesting is the number of flight hours per aircraft… ~175 hours/year since Jan 2021.

This is still a tad low compared to other fighter fleets (the Rafale is around 235 hrs/year and I believe the Super Hornet is up there too actually the USN Super Hornet fleet is also averaging ~175 hours/year. However the legacy USN/USMC Hornet and Growler fleets both fly ~275 hours/year, as do USAF F-15Es).
Click to expand...

How do we determine from this data how many hours the operational fleet got? The 730+ number is in agregate and includes the test, training, and non combat coded fleets as well.
 
bring_it_on said:
How do we determine from this data how many hours the operational fleet got? The 730+ number is in agregate and includes the test, training, and non combat coded fleets as well.
Click to expand...
The flight hours I quoted for the other fleets also included non-frontline aircraft such as test, training, maintenance/storage etc. Maybe the F-35 fleet has more aircraft grounded for some reason or other (eg. upgrades, maintenance)… that might be one explanation for the rather low tempo.
 
Last edited:
TomcatViP said:
The Rafale is also well under 200hr per year as it was posted months ago in a brief excerpt here.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links, as I was scratching my head because this statement is completely untrue… and the links don’t back-up this claim.

There are several sources for Rafale flight hours. The best IMHO is Safran’s reports on M88 engine hours… from 700,000hrs in Oct 2019 to 900,000hrs in Nov 2021. That’s 200,000 engine hours in 2 years, ie. 50,000 flight hours / year. Divide by global fleet size (approx. 212 Rafales over this time period) = 235 hrs/year.

French officials also quote fleetwide hours for the 143 French Rafales that translate to 225hrs/year… @Deltafan had a good post about this: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/dassault-rafale-news-only.17813/post-443322

Anyway even the Rafale’s 235 hours/year isn’t that high compared to USAF/USN legacy fleets… so the main point is that the F-35 still has room to go.
 
Last edited:
Fluff said:
and would hope a suitable ship was dispatched immediately after the accident.
Click to expand...

Sounds like it would need to be a commercial charter. Both the USNS Grasp and USNS Salvor are a long, long way away. It's quite easy to see on AIS sites where the incident happened though....
 
As per Gen. Kelly they are really looking at a sweet spot of about 200 hours / year for the fighter pilots in terms of training. That is assume on average across all fleets and only for US. I don't think we have annual hours for all F-35 users to be able to nail down what the USAF squadrons are getting based on the total data.
 
Last edited:
@H_K : French Rafale have to fly a maximum of 360hr every two years per contract (see 2nd link). Nobody is gona give the Fr AF free flights beyond that number.
But all this is old talks ;)
 
TomcatViP said:
@H_K : French Rafale have to fly a maximum of 360hr every two years per contract (see 2nd link). Nobody is gona give the Fr AF free flights beyond that number.
Click to expand...
You’re quoting yourself rather than actual sources, so that is simply untrue and I will leave it at that… I’ve repeatedly quoted multiple official sources on this matter. Plus we should stop polluting this thread. ;-)
 
Last edited:
Surprised Finland was offered it.

The F-35 was extensively tested for cold temperatures in the lab and also in Alaska; I remember reading about it when the same concerns were raised for the Canadian offer.
 
That is good to hear that it was tested in the lab and in Alaska.Also, what variant will Finland be getting A or B?
 
Norwegian aircraft plus an entire wings worth of F-35A's in Alaska, not to mention that it now has an excellent chance in getting selected (again) in Canada as well. It has undergone cold weather testing to the satisfaction of users who fully intend on using it in such environments over its 3-4 decade service life.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom