F-35

[FIGHTS ON]

Cathastail - great link - thank you

 

I'd not seen the gun pod before - presume we are getting those for the UK F-35Bs as well

 

 Can someone confirm that at minute 3:38 the USN is employing a Hobbit to remove the wheel chocks?

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, FIGHTS ON said:

Can someone confirm that at minute 3:38 the USN is employing a Hobbit to remove the wheel chocks?

No hobbit just a shorter and slightly stout female deck hand. 

[cathasatail]

From the joy of rumours of F-35b landings on HMS QE, earlier in the week, to the tragedy today: https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/f-35b-crashes-in-the-united-states/?no_cache=1

 

-F35b has crashed in the U.S. Pilot status unknown. Apparently USMC has confirmed that the aircraft "is unrelated to any RN/RAF F-35 flights off HMS Queen Elizabeth". (source)

 

Edit: Pilot ejected and is being medically examined

Edited September 28, 2018 by cathasatail

[Whitewolf]

2 x F35B have landed on HMS Queen Elizabeth off the East Coast of the United States for the very first time and commenced initial flight testing from the ship.

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

This is the first crash in over 100,000 hours for testing and bringing into service of a new aircraft.   Pilot seems to be fine.

 

I am sure the new lightning II will have a much better safety record than the last one.

 

We often look at the EE Lightning with rose tinted specs but the RAF lost 88 of them almost 1/3 of all aircraft then entered service, basically we sent young men up in Death traps, most of them possibly never made the news.

[exdraken]

On 10/1/2018 at 9:29 AM, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

This is the first crash in over 100,000 hours for testing and bringing into service of a new aircraft.   Pilot seems to be fine.

 

I am sure the new lightning II will have a much better safety record than the last one.

 

We often look at the EE Lightning with rose tinted specs but the RAF lost 88 of them almost 1/3 of all aircraft then entered service, basically we sent young men up in Death traps, most of them possibly never made the news.

That seems to have been standard back then... look at Luftwaffe Starfighters or Thuds or else!

 

Edited October 6, 2018 by exdraken

[GMK]

1 hour ago, exdraken said:

That seems to have been standard back then... look at Luftwaffe Starfighters or Thuds or else!

 

Not sure that the Thud is a fair yardstick - the overwhelming majority of its losses were combat losses in Vietnam. 

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

EE Lightnings and even early versions of the Harrier GR1/3 did not have a great record.

 

Between 1948 and 2000, the UK Military lost 7,000 aircraft in accidents with the loss of 5,000 crews and passengers, staggering.

 

Meteors in the 1950 were terrible, in 1953 the UK lost 353 Military aircraft in accidents. 

 

Did you see the Docu on BBC 4 Last nights Cold War Hot Jets, in two parts part two next Sunday, was a repeat from 2015 but worth a watch.

 

 

 

 

[Seahawk]

And that's without considering helicopters.  From reading crew reminiscences, it sounds as if the Whirlwind HAS.7 was a deathtrap that only young men with a strong sense of their own immortality would fly in.  I recall a story of a pilot, required to do a hot and high insertion somewhere in the Arabian peninsula, who calculated that he could take one soldier but not his rifle and kit.

[malpaso]

The EE Lightning was significantly worse than the Starfighter.  German losses largely arose from use in an environment and tasking it was not originally designed for whereas the Lightning was at least as murderous to its pilots and it was doing its intended role!

[VMA131Marine]

On 8/17/2018 at 8:47 AM, colin said:

I don't think they will be giving them away thats for sure 😀

Interesting note about the maintenance side for Europe with Turkey, I had forgot about that, it was the engine side of the maintenance now I've refreshed my memory via google

Pratt&Whitney has an existing engine maintenance facility in Turkey.

[VMA131Marine]

On 10/1/2018 at 12:29 AM, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

We often look at the EE Lightning with rose tinted specs but the RAF lost 88 of them almost 1/3 of all aircraft then entered service, basically we sent young men up in Death traps, most of them possibly never made the news.

How many of these aircraft were lost to mechanical failure vs pilot error? It seems we do a much better job of training aviators these days as well as building safer machines for them to fly in. The Starfighter in particular was one aircraft where training had a huge impact on accident rates; look at the difference in loss rates between the German and Italian operated aircraft. 

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

Many of the EE Lightning Losses were the same old problem, Controls burning out at the lower rear, in fact the last one lost by the RAF in 1988 was this problem.

 

Going back to a post by Seahawk, back in the early 1960 the RAF re-introduced SNCO (Sergeant) Pilots) to man mainly Helicopters as they could not get enough Officer Pilots to volunteer to fly them.

Edited October 8, 2018 by TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED

[GMK]

3 hours ago, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

EE Lightnings and even early versions of the Harrier GR1/3 did not have a great record.

 

Between 1948 and 2000, the UK Military lost 7,000 aircraft in accidents with the loss of 5,000 crews and passengers, staggering.

 

Meteors in the 1950 were terrible, in 1953 the UK lost 353 Military aircraft in accidents. 

 

Staggering is the word. 

 

As an aside, and ignoring practical considerations such as camouflage etc., I wonder whether the late-lamented colourful schemes of the 1950s-70s were tolerated for morale reasons? 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

46 minutes ago, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

Many of the EE Lightning Losses were the same old problem, Controls burning out at the lower rear, in fact the last one lost by the RAF in 1988 was this problem.

 

Going back to a post by Seahawk, back in the early 1960 the RAF re-introduced SNCO (Sergeant) Pilots) to man mainly Helicopters as they could not get enough Officer Pilots to volunteer to fly them.

On 14th November 2009 it killed Dave Stock of Thunder City in South Africa also when flying T.5 ZU-BEX at an airshow.

 

[TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED]

You can see the burning art the lower rear.

 

There was a lobby to get one of these to fly in the UK, but you can see why they will no let it.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

5 minutes ago, TIGER HOBBIESLIMITED said:

You can see the burning art the lower rear.

 

There was a lobby to get one of these to fly in the UK, but you can see why they will no let it.

Indeed. Objectively it's a dangerous aeroplane with form for catching fire, no real engineering understanding of the root cause and how to certify a rectification and one which is fuel critical when the nosewheel lifts off the runway!

[PLC1966]

14 minutes ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

On 14th November 2009 it killed Dave Stock of Thunder City in South Africa also when flying T.5 ZU-BEX at an airshow.

 

The accident report is on line for this, it really does not make for nice reading.  Maintenance was pretty shocking.

[bentwaters81tfw]

Most Lightning losses were down to engine fires. Umpteen fuel system modifications to the point where it was largely cured before it went out of service. Fuel leak fires ended up in the vicinity of the tailplane actuator screw jack, which failed in the heat. The primary cause of Dave Stock's death was a failure to maintain the ejection system, the canopy failed to release, and nothing else would work as a consequence.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

5 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Most Lightning losses were down to engine fires. Umpteen fuel system modifications to the point where it was largely cured before it went out of service. Fuel leak fires ended up in the vicinity of the tailplane actuator screw jack, which failed in the heat. The primary cause of Dave Stock's death was a failure to maintain the ejection system, the canopy failed to release, and nothing else would work as a consequence.

Hate to be argumentative, but had it not become necessary to abandon the aircraft due to loss of control due to fire, the ejection system would have been neither here nor there.

 

The maintenance failings are certainly alarming, and ultimately nullified his escape chances, but the *primary* cause remains the aircraft becoming unflyable.

[Unfinished project]

According to BBC news all F-35s have been grounded as a result of the recent accident  

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

The Royal Navy has just posted on their social media channels that this is not actually true, but that they have paused some flying. The RN says it is not a blanket grounding.

[magman2]

Turkish F-35A

Net Photo

[Sundowner14]

On 12/10/2018 at 23:02, magman2 said:

Turkish F-35A

 

Net Photo

Now that LM have sorted the coating it’s a much easier (albeit plainer) jet to finish.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

It may be real but the finish on it gives me thoughts that the photo is cgi ? The finish doesn't seem right compared to other images I’ve seen.