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10 Mind-Blowing Facts About The World’s Most Advanced Stealth Jet
10 Mind-Blowing Facts About The World’s Most Advanced Stealth Jet There’s a lot you may not know about the F-35. Get up to speed at F35.com. (www.buzzfeed.com) Más...Sort type: [Top] [Newest]
11. These mind blowing 'facts' are presented as gospel.
12. It can't shoot/drop the 9 tons of ordnance yet.
13. The cost and attendant overruns.
14. The pork skips three states, which ones?
12. It can't shoot/drop the 9 tons of ordnance yet.
13. The cost and attendant overruns.
14. The pork skips three states, which ones?
If you get a chance, what the movie, "The Pentagon Wars" with Kelsey Graham. Perfect explanation as to why we are buying this monstrosity. The best thing we could do with the F-35 is sell it to our potential enemies.
I was just thinking the same thing. That was an excellent movie based on real life. Perhaps our current military and political leaders need to watch it.
The only thing "mind blowing" about this aircraft is that we're going forward with it.
1. The F-35B is the worlds first operational aircraft that can land vertically and travel faster than the speed of sound.
>> These are conflicting design goals that only made it expensive and fat.
2. Oh, and it can take off with more than nine tons of ordnance.
>> Which is actually wimpy due to the above conflicting design goals. The Douglas A-4, which came off the drawing boards in the 50’s, could travel near transonic, had a total weight of only 15 tons, and it could carry it’s own weight!
3. The F-35C is the Navy’s very first stealth jet.
>> I am unsure if the Navy really cares. Stealth is problematic at best, as an Air Force F-117 driver learned the hard way in the Balkans. It can usually be defeated by an astute radar tech with a good understanding of his own system. Anti-Radiation missiles are a far more effective and cost efficient way to deal with hostile radars. The Navy took delivery on Block 1 HARM in the 1980s. One of those missiles survived a decade and 100,000 carrier launches and recoveries before it was used. It finally detonated within 5 meters of the hostile emitter on which it was finally unleashed.
4. 300,000 individual parts make up the F-35…
>> I fail to see how this is a positive statement. Seems unnecessarily complicated to me. Part count must be contributing to the weight problem as well.
5. Every pilot receives a custom-fitted helmet which allows them to see through the jet.
>> So, if that technology is unique to the F-35 L-M just wasted millions of taxpayer money, because it should be a modular system retrofittable to any platform with appropriate sensors.
>> These are conflicting design goals that only made it expensive and fat.
2. Oh, and it can take off with more than nine tons of ordnance.
>> Which is actually wimpy due to the above conflicting design goals. The Douglas A-4, which came off the drawing boards in the 50’s, could travel near transonic, had a total weight of only 15 tons, and it could carry it’s own weight!
3. The F-35C is the Navy’s very first stealth jet.
>> I am unsure if the Navy really cares. Stealth is problematic at best, as an Air Force F-117 driver learned the hard way in the Balkans. It can usually be defeated by an astute radar tech with a good understanding of his own system. Anti-Radiation missiles are a far more effective and cost efficient way to deal with hostile radars. The Navy took delivery on Block 1 HARM in the 1980s. One of those missiles survived a decade and 100,000 carrier launches and recoveries before it was used. It finally detonated within 5 meters of the hostile emitter on which it was finally unleashed.
4. 300,000 individual parts make up the F-35…
>> I fail to see how this is a positive statement. Seems unnecessarily complicated to me. Part count must be contributing to the weight problem as well.
5. Every pilot receives a custom-fitted helmet which allows them to see through the jet.
>> So, if that technology is unique to the F-35 L-M just wasted millions of taxpayer money, because it should be a modular system retrofittable to any platform with appropriate sensors.
6. The cockpit is almost entirely digital — with a glass LCD touchscreen and “hardly any hardwire switches.”
>> Totally begs the issue, which is good human factors design. As mentioned in other posts, software located touch screen is seriously questionable in a high-performance aircraft. NDA and security issues do not allow me to remark further, but short of a ringing endorsement from a military pilot who has actually flown this beast, I would be very skeptical.
7. The F-35 has recovered 100% of the time from all high angle of attack testing including 90 degrees straight up.
>> Well DUH! It is fly-by-wire aircraft with vectored nozzles! That should pretty much be a minimum spec.
8. More than 1,300 American suppliers in 47 states contribute to the F-35 program.
>> Translation: If we had not put some PORK in almost every state we could not have kept this program alive.
9. 8.6 Million lines of software code give the F-35 its superior capabilities.
>> Meaning over it’s service life you can look forward to finding and trying to fix or work around 86,000 bugs or flaws. I trust most of them will not be mission critical.
10. The F-35’s unprecedented stealth capabilities can render it “virtually undetectable” to radar.
>> Sure, keep pushing this myth. An aircraft’s radar profile varies with every different angle from which you can view it. It is hard enough to attenuate most of the signals coming from below, but when you attempt all angles there are lots of compromises. I’ll take an AGM-88 or two hung on an aircraft with optimized aerodynamics any day over any passive stealth technology.
>> Totally begs the issue, which is good human factors design. As mentioned in other posts, software located touch screen is seriously questionable in a high-performance aircraft. NDA and security issues do not allow me to remark further, but short of a ringing endorsement from a military pilot who has actually flown this beast, I would be very skeptical.
7. The F-35 has recovered 100% of the time from all high angle of attack testing including 90 degrees straight up.
>> Well DUH! It is fly-by-wire aircraft with vectored nozzles! That should pretty much be a minimum spec.
8. More than 1,300 American suppliers in 47 states contribute to the F-35 program.
>> Translation: If we had not put some PORK in almost every state we could not have kept this program alive.
9. 8.6 Million lines of software code give the F-35 its superior capabilities.
>> Meaning over it’s service life you can look forward to finding and trying to fix or work around 86,000 bugs or flaws. I trust most of them will not be mission critical.
10. The F-35’s unprecedented stealth capabilities can render it “virtually undetectable” to radar.
>> Sure, keep pushing this myth. An aircraft’s radar profile varies with every different angle from which you can view it. It is hard enough to attenuate most of the signals coming from below, but when you attempt all angles there are lots of compromises. I’ll take an AGM-88 or two hung on an aircraft with optimized aerodynamics any day over any passive stealth technology.
full disclosure - yes I worked for L-M competitors, but I also spent time at Lockheed.
That's not a good thing. Physical switches can be found by touch, in the dark or without looking at them, and can be operated reliably in turbulence or while maneuvering aggressively. Anyone who has ever tried to change radio stations on a touchscreen infotainment system on anything but a smooth highway will be able to relate.