F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread

[FORBIN]

Thank you Jura for researching and bringing the clarification, to date the F-35A has not conducted the typical "flight demo" for a US show, so not sure why not, but it would be a pleasure to see the A model's debut at this summer's Paris Air Show. I'm excited to see someone actually "Beat On" and A model, I can't wait to see the A doing "Fighter Tango"!

Bourget 2017: the F-35 still absent
It's official, the Lockheed Martin F-35 will not be present ...

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Damage... ! one year on 2 to Le Bourget or Farnoborough for me it is really not fair from LM, DOD also ? and also disapointing for aviation fans !!! i do facepalm...

 

[FORBIN]

Surely they keep F-16 for enough long time.

Will the F-35 Be the Next Thunderbirds Jet ?

The

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has been the mainstay of the Air Force Thunderbirds for decades.

But those who have flown with the team, as well as members of the fighter jet community at large, wonder what the replacement aircraft will be.

Could it be the

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? Or maybe something a little more bite-size, such as the T-50 trainer, should the

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actually decide to buy the aircraft?

Whatever the final choice, it’s got to live up to the agility of the F-16 known as the Viper to the F-16 community.

“It’s because it looks like a snake,” one public affairs officer told Capt. Erik “Speedy” Gonsalves in a

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conference room referencing viper. Military.com sat down to interview pilots here at the base and took a ride up in the F-16D two-seater with Gonsalves on April 21.

Gonsalves, new to the team with more than 500 hours of combat experience in the

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, took this reporter for her first-ever flight in a fighter jet. The advance pilot has logged more than 1,600 flight hours during his Air Force career, which began in 2008 after graduating the

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.

The demonstration squadron flew the

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trainer during the 1970s oil crisis. And downsizing to a trainer — such as Lockheed Martin’s T-50, which has avionics based on the F-16 but is a more capable trainer — could make sense logistically.

Audiences may still want bigger.

“Certainly, the F-35 is a very agile airplane — super capable,” said Lt. Col. Jason Heard, commander and leading pilot of the air demonstration team. “Whenever they do make that decision, they may look at the F-35 as the logical next choice if we’re going to continue that narrative of a combat aircraft.”

“[But] a lot of its capabilities would not be visual in an air demonstration: its data links, its ability to network, understand and build a situational picture in a war environment,” Heard said.
He said the decision is still a few years out, with various cost analyses needed.

Perhaps the Air Force would consider using an F-35 without all the bells and whistles, should Lockheed Martin Corp., its manufacturer, be open to making a less specialized version.

And it’s not as if the team’s pilots are training in the F-35 or any other kind of fighter at the moment, said Maj. Nick Krajicek, the slot pilot, flying the No. 4 jet.

“It’s only speculation that it may be the F-35,” he said, though “it is going to be the Air Force’s biggest buy” of combat aircraft. “We need to outfit the combat warfighter with that airplane before the Thunderbirds think about changing to … that aircraft.”

“Regardless of what aircraft the Air Force picks, I think about [it] for the aircrews, for the ground crews, for the maintenance, and for the overall show quality of what that’s going to be and how that transitions,” Krajicek said.

For now, “the maintainers you see here working the line right now do such an exceptional job … that we can fly these [F-16s] well into the future,” he said.

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[Air Force Brat]

Surely they keep F-16 for enough long time.

They're not going to change, yes the poor little F-16 is a little stale visually, but it can still do the do, and that's what we are demonstrating with our precision flight team, the Navy is still flying the F-18, but they just moved up to the Super Hornet last year?? I do believe

The F-16s the T-Birds fly are usually a couple of blocks behind our very best birds, but periodically they upgrade blocks in order to "keep up"...

No the F-35 is NOT going to be the new demo bird, sorry, but that's not how it works? once all the war-fighters have there aircraft, they may set aside some of those very early blocks, but that's prolly 10 years out at the earliest,,, maybe TX, or the Popular Science "wet dream bird", that we're sending to Afghanistan??? LOL

Maybe we could buy a dozen PAK-FA or SU-35s from the Russians for the ThunderBirds??? LOL

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

No the F-35 is NOT going to be the new demo bird, sorry,

Well Not in the next couple years anyway. I Think The USAF Thunderbirds will transition to F35A And Eventually the USN Blue Angels to F35C just not until those Aircraft have gone fully operational.

Because the USAF is in transition phasing in the F35A as such numbers are moving to combat and transitioning squadrons. it will be sometime before the USAF will have the numbers for a demo squad probably sometime post 2025. Mean Time I expect Vipers to stay the mainstay of the Thunderbirds, And as Adversary Aircraft for the Foreseeable future.

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that said there is one issue for the Thunderbirds and for Aggressors if they also try to transition.

The Paints. Paints on modern Low observable Jets contain RAM materials.
This limits the Color pallet.
It you look at stealths it's monochromatic. F22, and F35 are grey with White markings. B2 Spirit is darker Grey with light grey, J20 is Grey tones with White parkings, PAK FA is again Grey but then has the most colorful stealth in it's shark tones 2 blue shades and Red insignia. This means that for F35 in the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels These Aircraft would sacrifice their combat capacity.
For Aggressors who also sport nonconventional paint schemes to simulate Enemy Air threats and may in the future need to simulate Opfor Stealthy This would also limit the color pallets demanding Schemes like Spliter.

As such unlike the Russians who seem to introduce a new Flight Demo team for every new fighter type they introduce. The USAF and USAF will have to wait until the F35 series is in full production and has a few birds that can be pulled from operational duty.

by the Way these Images were produced and Released by Lockheed Martin back in 2009.

 

[Air Force Brat]

Well Not in the next couple years anyway. I Think The USAF Thunderbirds will transition to F35A And Eventually the USN Blue Angels to F35C just not until those Aircraft have gone fully operational.
View attachment 38358
Because the USAF is in transition phasing in the F35A as such numbers are moving to combat and transitioning squadrons. it will be sometime before the USAF will have the numbers for a demo squad probably sometime post 2025. Mean Time I expect Vipers to stay the mainstay of the Thunderbirds, And as Adversary Aircraft for the Foreseeable future.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that said there is one issue for the Thunderbirds and for Aggressors if they also try to transition.
View attachment 38359
The Paints. Paints on modern Low observable Jets contain RAM materials.
This limits the Color pallet.
It you look at stealths it's monochromatic. F22, and F35 are grey with White markings. B2 Spirit is darker Grey with light grey, J20 is Grey tones with White parkings, PAK FA is again Grey but then has the most colorful stealth in it's shark tones 2 blue shades and Red insignia. This means that for F35 in the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels These Aircraft would sacrifice their combat capacity.
For Aggressors who also sport nonconventional paint schemes to simulate Enemy Air threats and may in the future need to simulate Opfor Stealthy This would also limit the color pallets demanding Schemes like Spliter.
View attachment 38361
As such unlike the Russians who seem to introduce a new Flight Demo team for every new fighter type they introduce. The USAF and USAF will have to wait until the F35 series is in full production and has a few birds that can be pulled from operational duty.
View attachment 38362
by the Way these Images were produced and Released by Lockheed Martin back in 2009.

Their own little "wet dream bruda"! Heh!, Heh, Heh! I did suggest that in ten years or so they might pull some of those early LRIP birds for demo birds, from the test bird supply...

Some of those LRIP birds will need a rather extensive airframe upgrade to remain serviceable, and those might make excellent air-show aircraft!

 

[Air Force Brat]

Well Not in the next couple years anyway. I Think The USAF Thunderbirds will transition to F35A And Eventually the USN Blue Angels to F35C just not until those Aircraft have gone fully operational.
View attachment 38358
Because the USAF is in transition phasing in the F35A as such numbers are moving to combat and transitioning squadrons. it will be sometime before the USAF will have the numbers for a demo squad probably sometime post 2025. Mean Time I expect Vipers to stay the mainstay of the Thunderbirds, And as Adversary Aircraft for the Foreseeable future.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

that said there is one issue for the Thunderbirds and for Aggressors if they also try to transition.
View attachment 38359
The Paints. Paints on modern Low observable Jets contain RAM materials.
This limits the Color pallet.
It you look at stealths it's monochromatic. F22, and F35 are grey with White markings. B2 Spirit is darker Grey with light grey, J20 is Grey tones with White parkings, PAK FA is again Grey but then has the most colorful stealth in it's shark tones 2 blue shades and Red insignia. This means that for F35 in the Thunderbirds or Blue Angels These Aircraft would sacrifice their combat capacity.
For Aggressors who also sport nonconventional paint schemes to simulate Enemy Air threats and may in the future need to simulate Opfor Stealthy This would also limit the color pallets demanding Schemes like Spliter.
View attachment 38361
As such unlike the Russians who seem to introduce a new Flight Demo team for every new fighter type they introduce. The USAF and USAF will have to wait until the F35 series is in full production and has a few birds that can be pulled from operational duty.
View attachment 38362
by the Way these Images were produced and Released by Lockheed Martin back in 2009.

This airplane looks SO MUCH better in the all over white with T-Bird trim, love to see the J-20 in such a paint, can somebody CG or Dr. a picture with a recolor on the J-20 thread. Notice how much "lighter, more aerodynamic the F-35 appears, that same treatment for the J-20 would give us a much better idea of its high lift capability!

 

[Jura The idiot]

...
View attachment 38362
by the Way these Images were produced and Released by Lockheed Martin back in 2009.

F-35 involved in

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?

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

We have covered this before the F35 can maneuver is fairly agile as a fighter.

 

[TerraN_EmpirE]

 

[Jura The idiot]

in Bulgaria yesterday, at

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(source is

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containing some more pictures plus two videos)