Good luck F35

[TomcatViP]

Long story short: the 35 have a bunk cockpit by design... It's cheaper!

I don't understand this controversy. First you delay the all round digital camera system..Then you say that you hve no vis backward... Cross minded ppl are astonishing: you never expect them where you shld !

By the way, Swiss, comment ça va ? ~S

[Osprey]

If you're ever dogfighting in one of these then something has gone seriously wrong.

[Ploughman]

As the F-35 will be the RN's only fixed wing carrier asset, then it is entirely possible that it'll be dog fighting at some point in its career, just like the last fixed winged thing to fly off an RN carrier. I suppose that goes to a lesser extent for the USN, as they'll also have the Super Bug and whatever else comes down the pike.

[grawl]

The US should start to develop a brand new fighter using all the technology without the flaws the F35 is suffering.
So they could sell it again to the countries that funded the F35 project

Seriously, I don't see this machine successfuly fighting in the future.

I can hear it from there :
"That pigeon was in my blind spot !"

[Wolf_Rider]

Has anyone ever heard of the phrase "cash cow" ?... The investors are being milked.

Ludicrous to think that competent experienced developers could come up with something that can't fly at night, or take a storm.

[raaaid]

humm why they dont use mirrors or cameras deploying foe on helmet hud?

its that kind of nonsense which confuses me

no wrose than the g2

[swiss]

Originally Posted by raaaid

its that kind of nonsense which confuses me

No, it's the fact you don't read other ppls posts.

[Osprey]

Originally Posted by grawl

The US should start to develop a brand new fighter using all the technology without the flaws the F35 is suffering.
So they could sell it again to the countries that funded the F35 project

It's not just a US project, lots of British companies are involved.

"JSF development is being principally funded by the United States. The partner nations are either NATO members or close U.S. allies."
......
"The United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Norway, Denmark, and Turkey are part of the development program; Israel, Singapore and Japan may also equip their air services with the F-35"

[Codex]

The test pilots are a bunch a whiny pussies ...

[horseback]

First of all, the primary requirement for testing personnel in any discipline is to find fault (my ex would have been very good in this field); the whinier, the pickier, the more persnickety the better. Guys who don't find something wrong find themselves back in sales. Add to this the natural expectation of men who flew bubbletops exclusively for a decade or more, and that canopy is going to draw comment. It's a lot like going from a P-51D to a P-51B with the basic clamshell instead of the vastly better Malcolm blown canopy--one minute, you're at the top of the world with a panorama view, and the next, you're in a box.

I'm not convinced that the cockpit visibility is all that much of a deal killer; even if the cockpit were raised 50cm or so, allowing the pilot to sit on top of the airframe in the traditional bubble, the rear view would be restricted and blocked by parts of the airframe. As it is, the view forward, down and to the sides look to me as though it is pretty danged good. Of course, the average journalist (or at least the guy who writes the headline) will be more interested in what he can sensationalize than in a balanced report, so the average citizen is more likely to get a steady diet of negatives that require more parsing than he is willing to do.

The real problem is the basic concept of One Size Fits All; some of us are old enough to remember the F-111, which was supposed to be an all-services miracle back in the 1960s--the original AIM-54 carrier for the Navy's Fleet defense and the tactical fighter for the Air Force and Marine Corps' ground attack and some portion of the air to air role. The Navy hated the concept from Day One, and created all kinds of obstacles and requirements that conflicted with the Air Force's needs. The side by side cockpit and a lot of the extra weight (for carrier landings) were part of the Navy's contribution to the project. Ultimately, the navalized F-111B version was cancelled and replaced by the much more capable F-14, but the initial versions of the Tomcat were hamstrung with the engines originally slated for the Navy's F-111Bs, which were less than optimal (Robert McNamara was nothing if not vindictive).

The USAF version was reduced to being a (very capable) bomber and later, electronic countermeasures platform, and ultimately was a very effective combat aircraft once it found its niche. However, it should have been so much more without the USN's input (and the Tomcat could have been deployed a couple of years earlier and with better suited engines) had the politicians in the Pentagon not tried to force the requirements of one service upon the other(s).

cheers

horseback