MILAVIA Forum
Military Aviation => Military Aircraft => Topic started by: tigershark on February 19, 2009, 02:47:38 AM
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STOVL F-35B Ready To Begin Hover Pit Tests
Feb 17, 2009
By Graham Warwick
The first short takeoff and vertical landing (STOVL) F-35 Joint Strike Fighter could begin powered-lift testing on the hover pit at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, plant as early as this week.
This will begin perhaps the most critical phase of testing for the F-35 program. About a month of hover-pit testing is planned before the first F-35B, aircraft BF-1, returns to the air to begin STOVL flight testing, says J.D. McFarlan, F-35 air vehicle development team lead.
This will build up to the first full vertical landing, expected to be performed at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., in June or July and a key milestone for the program.
Hover pit tests will check performance and operation of the propulsion system up to full vertical thrust. In powered-lift mode the forward shaft-driven lift fan is engaged, the rear three-bearing nozzle swivels down and roll posts in the wing open.
BF-1 will be tied down over the open pit to measure forces and moments generated by the propulsion system during manual and automatic conversions between conventional and STOVL modes. Later the pit will be covered with steel plates to allow measurement of the ground environment and inlet temperatures and pressures during a vertical landing, McFarlan says.
Pit tests also will allow Lockheed Martin to measure the installed thrust of the Pratt & Whitney F135 engine and Rolls-Royce lift fan. This is key to confirming that the F-35B will achieve its STOVL performance objectives. McFarlan says the company is confident of achieving a minimum 40,550 pounds of vertical thrust, enough to enable the F-35B to meet its requirements.
Source
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story.jsp?id=news/F35B021709.xml&headline=STOVL%20F-35B%20Ready%20To%20Begin%20Hover%20Pit%20Tests&channel=defense
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Thanks Tigershark! Great stuff as always.
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Thanks F-111 C/C
For some reason I like the F-35 and think it's going to be a winner. I saw the mock up in the new Air & Space Museum location in DC about four months ago. I also think the STOVL model is going to be a big seller as well not at first but in the second rounds of new orders.
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I like it too. I also like the fact that every time I read about it from Lockheed-Martin it gets more thrust! Maybe by production, they'll have rung out another 4-5 thousand pounds! Not so long ago I think they were talking 32,500 lbs initially and had to hear a bunch of crap about it being underpowered. Keep 'souping' it up guys, you can never have too much thrust!
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So what do you think about the -35 in general?
Is it a Pitt Bull-Greyhound hybrid, or a quivering Chihuahua?
Will the -35 B's shaft eventually be used for powering directed energy weapons or simply used for short take-offs?
I think it's a dog.
But I've been wrong before- when I thought I'd made a mistake, but hadn't.
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I like it too. I also like the fact that every time I read about it from Lockheed-Martin it gets more thrust! Maybe by production, they'll have rung out another 4-5 thousand pounds! Not so long ago I think they were talking 32,500 lbs initially and had to hear a bunch of crap about it being underpowered. Keep 'souping' it up guys, you can never have too much thrust!
Don't forget it also gained weight along the way...
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What kind of surface does this thng need to land upon without creating a crater?
And does not that constitute a specially prepared surface, and negate the "rough-field" capability?
Or was that never a real consideration?
Shawn A.
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OK, I think they got it sorted. Check out this awesome inside loop at ground level.
(http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn101/Pictures77_2008/th_F-35.jpg) (http://s302.photobucket.com/albums/nn101/Pictures77_2008/?action=view¤t=F-35.flv)
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Dream On
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Come on Shawn, seeing is believing and I put up a vid for you. This is now a normal manoeuver for our F-35.
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as a former aircraft technician i'm trhilled of the large amount of malfunctions that could be popping up during a test of such a new mechanism
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Aviator, I'd thought I'd answered this already, but I was wondering where you Aussies got an F-35B before we did? I also wanted you to know that I'm on dial-up here, and a video takes over 15 times as long to download as the video is long!
What's the name of your carrier? and, does it have a pub on board?
Shawn A.
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That footage has been making the rounds and is actually from a computer video game and is not real.
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Gee F-111, another doubter like Shawn. You septic tanks are hard to convince. Bloody hell!
In fact the RAAF sent a team over there to evaluate the aircraft and one of the team, Squadron leader G [Ginger]Hebblethaite showed the USAF delegation what the aircraft could do at an open day on board the USS Enterprise in May.
But you are partly right, the manoeuvre was later used in a computer game.
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First of all, Aviator, I've been to Australia. 2wice,-- no actually 3hree times. I've known a few Aussie surfers through the years, and have learned the hard way, (I bought a used car in Parramatta in 1969, and your police are probably still looking for me) that a true Aussie cannot (by nature) ever,ever tell it straight! (no offense, I love that attitude) Also I've never heard a true Aussie use the whole phrase "septic tanks", It's "seppo". Which makes me ask-- are you a native Aussie?
Oh, and I still consider the -35 to be a dog!
I know a few people at Lockheed, and I think I'll ask them to raise the price.
Shawn A
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[sigh] Shawn, I am from Perth on the West Coast and I have never heard of Seppos. It must be some slang from some scumbag place like Sydney, which is the capital of multiculturalism in Australia.
In Perth we are still blessed with a pure, Anglophile originated race that speaks English.
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Aviator,
I've been to Perth, and it truly is a nice place. I had hopes of going to Cape Naturaliste, and down to Cape Leeuwin, but had to jump ship. I lost something in Sydney.
Tell your government to join forces with the Japanese, and the Israelis, and hold out for the F-22.
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Australians have all lost something in Sydney. Our identity.
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Aviator,
Once again, my sony computer, microsoft, and the dial-up connection conspired to dissove my reply into the netherworld of cyberspace.
What I said was;
What I lost in Sydney begins with a "V".
My favorite town in Oz is Lightning Ridge, Coober Pedy is a close second, if you like the Martian terrain.
So- what is your opinion of the -35? Do you think it has capabilities above the -22?
I do not like the (expletive deleted) doors on the -35B, I would rather see a stealthy Harrier with rotating nozzles than all those doors and a clutched fan. Nozzles would seem to offer much less drag during the transition. The Harrier can go from 0 to 600 miles an hour in 60 seconds.
And who, really, is Ginger Hebblethaite? An old flame?
The -35B will blow a hole in anything other than reinforced concrete or steel during vertical landing
The only brilliance I see in the shaft arrangement is that it should, (and probably will be) used to produce electricity for HPM or directed energy weapons.
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Begins with a V? Well that was probably your jar of Vegemite. Any Aussie reading this will know how serious that is for us.
If your name was Captain W.E Johns you'd know who Ginger Hebblethaite is. Any Poms reading this will bear that out.
Now I have to own up here and admit that there are aeronautical engineers in the world that actually know more about the future of the F-35 Lightning than I do, but I have made one observation that is relevant.
Ever seen a rhinoceros beetle take off and those little doors open to let the wings out? Reminds me of those doors you are talking about.
I hope my answers have helped.
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Yes, Aviator, your answers have helped. I'll now refer to the F-35B as the Rhinoceros Beetle.
So Ginger probably had red hair and freckles.
I'm sure the RAAF Rhino Beetles will have a small packet of Vegemite in the pilot's survival kit.
I just read that the R.B. can go from mach 0.8 to mach 1.2 in 61 seconds at 30,000 ft. It's top turning speed was stated as370 kt. at 9Gs and 15,000 ft. But it's sustained turn performance was mach 0.8 at 4.95 Gs, again at 15,000 ft. Thrust to weight was listed as 0.85 (to me, that's .85 lbs of thrust to 1 lb of weight) and a wing loading of 110 lbs per sq. ft. But Lockheed envisions the plane entering air to air combat with 40% of it's internal fuel, giving it a thrust to weight ratio of 1.09, and a wing loading of 83 lbs per sq. ft.
In a simulation program the Pentagon runs for air combat analysis, the R.B. "could achieve a loss-exchange ratio better than 400% against it's nearest competitor". That's according to Lockheed. I always thought a "ratio" implied a fraction- you know- one number over another. "400%" as a ratio seems to be obfuscatorial gobblydegook on the part of Lockheed, but to me it implies a 4/1 ratio. Of course the Beetle only carries 4 missles. After that-it better run!
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Gee mate, you guys built it. Where's the patriotism?
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indeed that video makes me think that was taken from a computer game. the pilot would endanger his own a*s and the aircraft in making so.
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It IS from a video game. F-16.net has a whole forum about it, the name of the game it was taken from and everything. Much more convincing to me.
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Are everybody fascinated or me and F111 C/C are the only insane here?:)) ???
guys comeon be reasonable. pilot wont evero do that thing. put whole aircraft in danger...just think over it
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El, just remember who told you about this ground level manoeuvre in the first place. It was an Aussie and we are known for our straight shooting. Isn't that right septics?
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That's right, Eldorado 82, you can always count on an Aussie to tell it like it is
NOT!!
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i think i begin to get who are the aussies :)
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Eldorado I spent 9 months there in 1969, and when I returned to the US, my friends said I had developed a bit of an Aussie accent. You could be right--it might rub off.
So what do you think of the news about you folks buying F-35s and getting to put some of your own stuff on them
I hope you aren't buying the Rhino Beetle version, are you?
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Wow, is this thread a mud-slinging match or discussion on the F-35B?
I use the term "Seppo", never Septic Tank. Everyone I know uses "Seppo".
The RAAF is looking at getting F-35A variants, so there's no point sending RAAF pilots to the US to train on STOVL airframes when we're not planning to get any.
RAAF JSF page (http://www.airforce.gov.au/aircraft/jsf.aspx)
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Well, Recce,
What do you think of the F-35 B?