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

Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
let me see that paragraph:

"I believe the F-35 program should be immediately canceled; the technologies and systems developed for it should be used in more up-to-date and cost-effective aircraft designs. Specifically, the F-35 should be replaced with a series of new designs targeted toward the specific mission requirements of the individual branches of the armed forces, in lieu of a single aircraft design trying to be everything to everyone."

yes, I've following the F-35 Program for like three and a half years now, during which I didn't see a cancellation officially mentioned at all (I think the last official trouble was Nunn–McCurdy breach by F-35B back in 2010), so no, what the author has described in that paragraph just won't happen; in fact, the Pentagon does anything it takes to build as many F-35s as possible

Yep, he reminds me of Senator McCain? (saying the stoopidest thing) to get himself on camera, sadly only preserving the evidence of said "stoopidity"!
 
according to FlighGlobal PARIS: F-35 goes from zero to hero
The Lockheed Martin F-35 is steadily becoming a mainstay of big air shows, with its planned high-g performance to mark a key turning point in its show attendance record.

The type’s troubled development over the past decade precluded air show appearances, as far more serious work was necessary to bring costs and production issues under control.

While F-35 appearances were rumoured from 2010 to 2015, aviation enthusiasts were invariably disappointed.

A major no-show occurred in 2014. It had been planned for the F-35 to attend Farnborough in the middle of July, but this was thrown into doubt when the fleet was grounded on 3 July 2014. Though the grounding was lifted days before the show, limitations placed on the aircraft ruled out an appearance.

After the disappointment of Farnborough 2014, the maturing programme and growing number of in-service airframes has changed the F-35's show fortunes. The first sign of this came in mid-2016, when the F-35B appeared in two UK shows, the Royal International Air Tattoo and the Farnborough air show.

While crowds were delighted to see the famous aircraft for the first time, the displays were underwhelming, involving little more than a fly-past and a good deal of hovering, the main feature of the short take-off and vertical landing F-35B.

In March 2017, two Royal Australian Air Force F-35As flew from Luke AFB to make an appearance at the Avalon air show in Australia. The pair performed a fly-past, while one aircraft performed briefly on static.

The type's Paris appearance marks another step change, with the aircraft to perform a high-g F-22-style display with a Lockheed test pilot at the controls.
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FORBIN

Lieutenant General
Registered Member
Le Bourget hehe

Lockheed Martin senior experimental test pilot Billie Flynn flies the F-35A Lightning II. This is the Paris debut of the F-35A model, which is flown by the United States Air Force. Last year, the STOVL-capable F-35B variant made its international airshow debut at the Farnborough Air Show. This F-35A display shows an expanded envelope of the aircraft’s capabilities over the last display.

 
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Back to Paris, it looks to be an incredible show, and I can't wait to see it? ...
... and
Billie Flynn aims to silence the skeptics with complex F-35A demo flights at the Paris Air Show.
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F-35 Demo Pilot: Paris Performance Will ‘Crush Years Of Misinformation'
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Not as agile as the Super Hornet nor as fast as the Typhoon? Don’t you believe it, says
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test pilot Billie Flynn. He will put the
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through its paces at Le Bourget this week, proving that the aircraft is more maneuverable than any he has flown, he says, including
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’s
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, the
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, and his own company’s
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Viper.

“After 10 years since first flight, with our first opportunity to demonstrate the capabilities and the maneuverability of the F-35, we are going to crush years of misinformation about what this aircraft is capable of doing,” Flynn said in an interview with Aviation Week.

The F-35’s maneuverability is all the more impressive because, unlike the F-16s that perform at air shows, the Joint Strike Fighter flying the demonstration this week is fully combat-ready. Flynn’s F-35A will move easily through complex aerial maneuvers loaded with everything it needs to go to war.

“All of those airplanes that do air shows—the Hornet, Viper—they are all slicked off without all the external stores,” Flynn said. “They are a party trick at an air show, versus a combat-configured
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or F-35.”

The flight demonstration is carefully scripted to highlight the kinematic capabilities of the F-35A, particularly its slow-speed handling qualities, said Flynn. He will start with an afterburner takeoff, almost immediately pointing his nose to the sky and letting the aircraft climb away essentially vertically. This impressive move is unique to the F-22 and the F-35, he said.

Next, Flynn will reverse back in front of the crowd, and perform a “square loop” to show the aircraft’s instantaneous pitch capability and high angle-of-attack (AOA) maneuverability. Then he will turn around, reverse back in front of the crowd, and perform a slow-speed, high-AOA pass. Afterward, he will light the afterburner and fly straight up into the sky once again.

From there, Flynn will pull up vertically in front of the crowd and execute a maximum AOA “power loop,” where the aircraft flips on its back—another signature Raptor move. Then he will initiate a spiral at 50 degrees AOA, called a “pedal turn,” which he says will be the most impressive part of the entire routine.

After reversing again in front of the crowd, the last move is a maximum-G, 360-deg. turn, which highlights the maximum-rate, minimum-radius-turn capability of the aircraft, Flynn said. The F-35 in its current 3i configuration is limited to 7g; when the fighter gets its full war-fighting capability with the final 3F software, it will be able to pull 9gs.

“This aircraft down low in this environment is an absolute monster,” said Flynn. ”It is more powerful, it is more aggressive than any of us, including those of us that fly the F-35, would have imagined before we began this flight-demo process.”

The high show does not include the F-35 opening its weapon-bay doors, as the F-22 does during its airshow routine. The low show, which the F-35 will perform if there is inclement weather or cloud ceiling, includes opening the weapon-bay doors, according to Lockheed spokesman Mark Johnson.

Lockheed’s F-35 airshow profile has been in the works for well over a year, according to Flynn. The team has conducted over 800 simulator runs to evaluate the profile, and Flynn began practicing in the aircraft at the company’s facility in Fort Worth, Texas, about a month ago.

The company has developed air show routines for all three F-35 variants—the U.S. Navy F-35C carrier variant and the U.S.
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F-35B vertical-takeoff-and-landing variant as well—but this year Flynn is focused on the U.S. Air Force F-35A version.

Flynn had to modify the routine to accommodate airspace restrictions unique to the Paris show, he said. Flying is limited laterally and vertically because of Le Bourget’s proximity to both to the city of Paris and Charles De Gaulle Airport. Flynn is also limited by time—he only has 6 min. for the routine at Le Bourget, where at most air shows he would have 10 min.

“We focused on the ‘wow’ factor and left out the elements of a routine that would be part of a non-Paris-type profile,” Flynn said. “You have to live inside very tight restrictive boundaries, but it still permits us to put on a show that I believe will squelch the critics once and for all.”

So how will the F-35 demonstration compare to the Raptor’s always-impressive routine? It’s very similar, Flynn said.

“We all love what the Raptor can do. I would say the F-35 and the F-22 both put on demonstrations that are unique to our fifth-gen maneuverability,” said Flynn. “But don’t forget, that’s not how we dominate—we dominate because of stealth and sensor fusion.”

The two F-35As from Hill AFB, Utah, arrived at Le Bourget Airport June 13 and will be maintained on-site by Air Force maintainers and security personnel. One aircraft will be flying, and one will be on static display.
 
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now according to BreakingDefense
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After years of criticism that the
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and analysis that the program had made a fundamental mistake relying on the plane’s ability to
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,
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will fly a demonstration
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this afternoon meant to put those doubts to rest.

You can read what the flight demo is intended to demonstrate on the handout below. I asked one of the Air Force pilots, Lt. Col. Scott “Cap” Gunn, here whether the F-35 would win when fighting close-up with an enemy fighter. His answer was simple: “Without a doubt.”

Gunn told reporters at a briefing here that he had gone up against a friend in an F-16 a few months ago. Though the F-35 “performed very well,” he made clear that it hadn’t been dominant. They flew again recently and the F-16 pilot was amazed by the improvement in the F-35’s performance. “What have they done to your jet?” the pilot said, according to Gunn. “The difference is we have learned how to fly the jet… and better understand where its advantages are.”

Gunn went on to say that he “either never got it within visual range, or, if I’m going to be inside visual range, then it’s because I’m going to choose to be there.” That seems to make clear the aircraft’s vaunted fusion engine and advanced sensors — all tied into the pilot’s helmet — provides the pilot with enough warning and
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However, one of the F-35’s most persistent problems — an Air Force, not a Lockheed Martin problem — is the five years of delays building the
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, the data that allows the F-35 to identify threats and recommend weapons to deal with them.

The Office of Secretary of Defense’s Intelligence Mission Data Center gathers the data from across the Intelligence Community. Then the 513th Electronic Warfare Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base turns that information into threat data for the Air Force’s weapons. That process has been far too slow and too uncertain for far too long, Air Force officials and pilots acknowledge.

Col. Todd Canterbury, director of the Air Force’s F-35 Integration Office, told me the Air Force finally has “got a plan in place that the 3F (software) planes will have the mission data files they need for the AORs (Areas Of Operation) where they are deployed.” So, if he’s right, this long-term restraint on the plane’s effectiveness should be removed by the end of this year.

In other news, Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin’s head of the F-35 program, said he had spoken with the staff of
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about the huge proposed
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of F-35 jets by the United States and a host of partner nations and “they seem to be very very supportive about it.” Granger not only represents Fort Worth, Texas, site of Lockheed’s
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: She is also the new chair of the powerful
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.
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Air Force Brat

Brigadier
Super Moderator
liked the square loop most ... "in its corner":
vR3NC.jpg

Finally! the ThunderHoggeII "takes the dogs out"! He let her loose, but I assure you, there is more where that came from, once they open up the envelope, it will be "Raptor Light" , well its already Raptor Light, but you get my point, it is full of that LockMart sweetness, low speed rapture, just like I told you!
 
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