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| Ship suitability testing with the F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant of the Lightning II continued on 4 October 2011, as Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Fred Schenk flying BF-2, the second F-35B test aircraft, successfully carried out a short takeoff from the deck of the USS Wasp (LHD-1) at sea. Called Development Test 1, test pilots will verify F-35B basic performance and handling qualities in a flight envelope that approximates that used by fleet pilots during amphibious assault ship qualification flights. |
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Have you seen this pic from F-35 ship board testing?
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Sol, there was some talks that the bravo version couldnt land vertically if it had alot of fuel on and all its weapons, i cant remember specifically but there was worry about its weight when landing vertically, what happened to that? are those concerns still there? i dont mean this as a criticism of the bravo, i think it will be a legendary aircraft just wondering what was being said about it if it had to be loaded with a good amount of ordinance (like if it didnt need stealth on a mission and had external hard points loaded.
ReplyDeleteThe -B model doesn't have the bring-back capacity to come back with a near full fuel and weapons load. It has a large bring-back capability, but testing showed that for the desired capability, there was about a 90kg performance shortfall.
ReplyDeleteP&W has confirmed that they've added about 100lbs of thrust and L-M have taken a few other measures (lightening something a bit further I expect) and the -B models now have the margin (plus additional safety margin) to meet their bring-back and vertical landing performance goals.
So much for some assertations that it has no room for growth or development...
Cool photo btw Sol. I especially like the ships in the background. Some people must be getting some cool images and video of this...
ReplyDeletethanks Aussie, i remember they had some thrust issues and LM and P&W was looking at it but good to see they figured it out. i agree the argument theres no room for growth is dumb, this is literally cutting edge technology, there will be things that come up short in testing and then we replace it, its why we are still the best, we can innovate.
ReplyDeleteThe F-35B's VLBB (Vertical Landing BringBack) is ~3k of weapons (equals 2x internal 1k JDAMs and 2xAMRAAMs) and ~2k of reserve (above OEW) fuel.
ReplyDeleteThe low VLBB (still higher than the AV-8B) is one reason that the UK contracted with LM to add SRVL (Shipboard Rolling Vertical Landing) to the B's capability set (this was before they switched to the C).
Sol...take a look at the current marine times. Some major talking about how the Corps should field F22's over the.F35 because its better all around. A statment I feel is grossly over stated.
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