F-35B STOVL flight tests

Overwatch March 22, 2010 at 9:51am

It's a hoax video recorded in Battlefield 2. Just shows how far we've gotten since the early days of computer graphics :)

Michael Lingg March 22, 2010 at 9:49am

Hmm, well made then. I was e-mailed this as legit, probably shouldn't have fallen for it :)

Michael Lingg March 22, 2010 at 8:42am

I don't know where to find a copy of the video (it was e-mailed to me and I don't have a copy right now) but if you can find it, you should see the vertical takeoff near crash of an F-35.

I'm not certain all what happened but my understanding is that the afterburner was accidentally applied during takeoff (not properly locked out in software I guess). When this happened the lift became unbalanced as the lift fan could not compensate. The tail rose rapidly moving into a backflip.

About half way through either the pilot or the computer system transfered to normal flight mode while still in full afterburner. The momentum pushed the aircraft 270 degrees from initial level position to pure vertical with the afterburner stopping the aircraft's descent.

Finally the momentum pushed the aircraft back to level flight (a full 360) and the full afterburner rocketed the F-35 off like a bat out of hell, just missing loosing enough altitude to hit the deck (yes the aircraft survived as far as could be seen on video).

I'm sure everyone involved required a change of pants. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen the video...

Xander March 21, 2010 at 7:55pm

Interesting. I never really thought of this being the last generation of manned military aircraft. But it certainly is going to become harder and harder to justify sticking a person up there...

Paulo Geraldes March 21, 2010 at 11:16am

Have a look at this link for more info:

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/products/f35/

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Gary Mortimer March 21, 2010 at 7:44am

Just saw this http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/F-35-Joint-Strike-Fighter-Event... guess they are ramping up noise hoping to generate more sales.

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Gary Mortimer March 21, 2010 at 7:37am

I agree with Jack it might not enter service. But if works needed for people to keep jobs it might just.

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Alex March 21, 2010 at 12:09am

Yeah I remember watching documentary about this on discovery and they said that the F35 will probably be amongst the last generation of manned military aircraft, assuming things go the way they are

Jack Crossfire March 20, 2010 at 8:03pm

Big change in the lift fan from earlier prototypes.

It'll probably never be used, unmanned vehicles performing all its missions.

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F-35B STOVL flight tests

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