Aviation Week, reported by Amy Butler...
Because of a 36-hr. turnaround time on the ground at Patuxent River upon arrival from Eglin, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the F-35B will make an appearance at the naming ceremony for the HMS Queen Elizabeth on July 4 in the U.K. Though the ceremony is not on the official F-35B schedule, program officials had hoped to arrive in time to conduct a flyover, as this class of ship will eventually host the single-engine, stealthy fighters to re-build the U.K.’s carrier strike capability.Congrats to Lockheed Martin Aviation Team and the F-35 Program Office.
Meanwhile, officials announced June 30 that the last flying de Havilland Sea Vixen — a 1950s-era, carrier-based U.K. fighter — will perform a flyover at the new carrier’s naming ceremony. Planners have shifted from one extreme to the other; they once hoped to showcase the future of British carrier aviation but are now settling for a nod to the past.
You just gave your biggest supporter a black eye.
Well Done!
I Just whipped away a bead of sweat from my forehead...for those pilots that were slated to cross the pond in those things. This seams like it's a sizable blow to the 35 project.
ReplyDeleteYou have to really feel sorry for the Brits who put everything in one basket: the Flying Ponzi Scheme, aka F-35. No Fleet air arm since they get rid of their Harriers (I think the USMC have got them all) so they will have carriers without planes, and even the RAF is waiting them since the Tornados are getting quite old now. The UK was the only country to have a perfect V/STOL aircraft design for more than 40 years (not counting the very limited Yak-38) and now their are nearly totally dependent of an foreign company for that. If, or when, they make cuts in the F-35 program, the F-35 B variant would be the first victim. This is getting ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteThe Marines bought virtually the entire operational British Harrier fleet to use as spares for our Harriers. The British are embarrassed by their premature retirement of the Harrier (which the F-35 had nothing to do with). So much so, that when retired Marine LtCol Art Nalls offered to give exhibitions of his privately owned Sea Harrier in the UK he was told he would not be allowed to fly it in its home country. He will be flying it this year on this side of the pond at Oshkosh, Milwaukee Rockford, Gary, IN, Lakeland, FL, and Ft. Lauderdale, among others.
DeleteLooks like the fragility of those F-35Bs was too much to ignore in the short hop from Florida to DC, and even the "I believe" crowd couldn't ignore the reality that these prototype aircraft couldn't possibly cross the Atlantic safely.
ReplyDeleteWith that long of a turnaround, they could have trucked them up there faster. I wonder if they encountered problems with the fueldraulic system again.
Not so much the F-35Bs as the engine. You know, the engine for which there was a competitive alternative that was about to fly only to be killed due to intense lobbying? .
DeleteNow we're at the mercy of the contractor for performance and price because there's nowhere else to go.
The Mig29 and Sukhoys take off from carriers with ski jump deck. The Super Hornet could do the same easily, the same the Sea Gripens if they decide to built them.
ReplyDeleteThat is annoying, I was going to head over to Rosyth to see that,
ReplyDeleteNot to be overly optimistic but I spent most of today in Rosyth and in addition to Illustrious now being in the adjacent dock there is something that looks distinctly like an F35b on the ramp.
ReplyDeleteI'm not there, but it could be a mock-up. I don't think that the plan for the dog-and-pony flight included actually landing on, or taking off from, the carrier. Just a fly-by and maybe a vertical hover before returning to the off-site tarmac.
DeleteIt could indeed be a mock up, the photos I took with my phone blow unfortunately.
DeleteA lovely couple I got chatting to that were taking photos with proper equipment let me look through their 50x optical kit and it looked pretty convincing at that magnification. I read there are some 'static airframes' in the UK that it might potentially be. It had some odd markings, white edging to a lot of the panels in the nose and under the fuselage that I can't find in online shots of operational F35's.
On the other hand the couple I spoke to know folks that work in the yard and word was that something noisy and VSTOL landed on the ship on Monday and that there might be close ups floating around Instagram if you know where to look.
Time will tell I suppose.
It's a mock up. This guy took these pics on the 25th of this month on a tour of the HMS Illustrious.. https://www.flickr.com/photos/alanaplin/2728945808/in/photostream/
ReplyDeleteI can't tell for certain, that's the wrong side unfortunately, but what I saw did not look anything like that.
DeleteLighter grey, no text like that. I think, can't confirm for certain, there was a RAF roundel on the nose immediately behind the nose cone and, like I said, a great many of the panels had this light grey or white edging. You can see something similar in several of the shots available on the web in the area between the wings when the vehicle is photographed from above. It definitely did not have any USAF or Navy markings that I could see.
Actually further on in that stream there is a picture of the other side.
DeleteThat 'aircraft' is absolutely not what is sitting on the ramp of the Queen Elizabeth.
Unless it has been totally repainted for some reason....
Two years ago at a local airshow, the Navy flew in a Super Hornet. The air show guards let us climb all over the A-10's and take all the photos we wanted of every little part. But the Hornet had a ring of tape around it and 4 armed guards. Two of which gruffly told us to stop taking photos a good 20 yards beyond the taped perimeter.
DeleteThe idea of anyone leaving a prototype F-35 on the Queen Elizabeth for the general public to walk up and inspect/photograph strikes me as rather unlikely. I say it's a mockup.
You are almost certainly correct given today's announcements.
Deletehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2679893/A-glimpse-Royal-Navys-future-Britains-biggest-warship-pictured-air-official-naming-The-Queen.html
Some lovely shots of what I'm talking about there. Little better than my smartphone shots but you can get an idea of what I was talking about.