Fun to watch...note position of stabilators on lift-off...

F-35B Ship Suitability Testing (3 min 5 sec)

Thats a pretty cool video

I bet that fan makes a lot of thust probably just helps with lift in the tail.
Looks prett hard on that deck

pretty neat except its a complete waste of money.... a couple reasons for this... it can not conventionally land on a carrier. the tail hook has to be between the main gear and it cant be long enough to work because of the exhaust "even on the navy version" next is where are you supposed to keep fuel and weapons with that huge drive shaft and fan? remember it is "stealth" so all of the weapons are internal similar to the F-22 and if you put weapons inside and then the drive shaft for the fan and then the fan, you quickly run out of room for fuel! it is cool though but a pretty big waste of money...
can any one airplane really work for all the branches? i think no and the f-4 was the last one in service that really did and they still had to add a gun pod...

Originally Posted by Carruthers43

can any one airplane really work for all the branches? i think no and the f-4 was the last one in service that really did and they still had to add a gun pod...

You do realize they make 3 different versions of the F35. All for different branches. F-35A is a conventional takeoff and landing variant, the F-35B is a short take off and vertical-landing variant, and the F-35C is a carrier-based variant.

yeah but they are all based on the same plane and use the same parts... the C will not work and has all but been scrapped... there was a huge press release from pax river and the f-35 has failed every single aspect of carrier landing using the arresting hook

The arresting gear redesign is already underway and Lockheed Martin has tested some interim measures to fix things. The airplane is hardly going to be wasted money. I DO agree however, that the unified platform idea has failed every time it was tried, and I'm not sure why Congress feels the need to go through this every couple decades. The TFX program, which resulted in the mediocre F-111 should have been plenty of evidence to NOT do this.

Oh.. and precision munitions have removed the necessity for an aircraft to carry a lot of weapons. The dumb 'iron' bomb situation is pretty much gone. An F-35 only needs to carry 4-6 precision bombs, plus a couple AA missiles and it's good to go. The mission has changed quite a bit from the old days of an A-6 carrying 36 Snakeyes to carpet bomb a target.

all i know is what a job , must be nice to fly aa bird like that and not half to worry about fuel cost that and get paid for... on the other hand i want to say thank you to our troops for doing just that and protecting are freedom.............

It's missing the thrill of a CAT shot and a night trap in bad weather

That is one bad-ass airplane!

The F-35C will absolutely be using catapults and arresting gear.

If the navy buys them. with sequestrian pretty much happening....I am betting that the F-35 varients won't make the cut.