via Breaking Defense.
After several months of uncertainty whether CF-3 and CF-5 would both be ready to fly — complete with new tail hook assemblies and huge amounts of test instrumentation — Bogdan told us yesterday they would both fly to the ship. As Breaking D readers know, thetail hook on the F-35Cs had to be redesigned. The initial design did not reliably engage the cable and wasn’t strong enough. The Arresting Hook System got better damping, changed the shape of the hook and made it and where it connects with the airframe, much stronger. During tests over the last five months, F-35C test pilots had to deliberately land their aircraft on the nose gear to mimic what can happen when pitching seas may drive a carrier deck right up into a plane as it lands. A Navy pilot I spoke with said the physical punishment of such a landing is “pretty impressive” — not to mention the stresses it can place on the plane. I’ll be in San Diego and on the Nimitz all next week covering the tests for you.If we weren't talking about the future defense of the fleet---and a crazy amount of money....This would be funny.
Do you notice it? Can you sense the same attempt to generate headlines like they did when the push was on to fly the F-35 to Europe? But what really has me curious and I have yet to hear anyone talk about is the lead that Breaking Defense buried...
A Navy pilot I spoke with said the physical punishment of such a landing is “pretty impressive” — not to mention the stresses it can place on the plane.Can a stealth airplane take the punishment of carrier landings?
Can the F-35 handle the stress after its been subjected to weight reduction and had so much of it structure "shaved" down?
I just don't know.
What I do know is that this program is setting up an artificial make-or break moment and I don't know why.
Something is going on with this program. I just can't piece it together.
