Posted on 07/08/2020 12:56:35 PM PDT by Red Badger
A key F-35 safety system is sustaining damage in Air Force service, forcing the office that overseas the F-35 program to recommend flight restrictions.
Under the new guidelines, F-35 jets should socially distance from lightning, maintaining a distance of least 25 miles.
The faulty systems could cause a F-35 hit by lightning to literally explode in midair.
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The F-35 Lightning II strike fighter is temporarily barred from flying near actual lightning. More than a dozen Air Force F-35s were discovered with damage to a system designed to prevent catastrophic damage from lightning strikes. The damaged systems place the aircraft in danger of exploding if the airplane were hit by lightning in mid-flight.
The problem is with the Onboard Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS)is a safety subsystem common in modern airplanes. A typical OBIGGS system diverts air from the aircraft engine and separates the nitrogen, injecting it into the jet’s fuel tanks. The more inflammable nitrogen present the less flammable oxygen, helping reduce the possibility of fuel tank explosions. Wartime damage aside, one way a fuel tank explosion might take place is as a result of a lightning strike.
Inspectors at the Air Force’s Ogden Logistics Complex discovered damage to the tubes that funnel nitrogen into the fuel tanks in 14 out of 24 out of F-35As inspected. The problem appears limited to the Air Force’s F-35A model. The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps, which operate the -C and -B versions of the F-35, have not seen similar problems.
According to Defense News, manufacturer Lockheed Martin paused F-35 deliveries to look into the issue with aircraft on the production line. The company believes that the problem is being caused “in the field after aircraft delivery” meaning while in the hands of the Air Force. There are no reports as of yet in the hands of foreign F-35 operators, though that sample size might still be pretty small so far. Air Force Magazine’s 2020 almanac lists the Air Force and Air Force Reserve as currently operating 203 Lightning II fighters, the most of any air force worldwide.
For now, the F-35 Joint Program Office, which overseas the global F-35 enterprise, is recommending that F-35As avoid lightning and thunderstorms. The jets should maintain a distance of 25 miles from either type of weather, until the source of the problem is found and a fix is implemented.
Ironically, this is the second time the Lightning II has been prohibited from flying near actual lightning, after an earlier problem was discovered with the OBIGGS in the early 2010s.
Source: Defense News.
Say WHaaaat?
[?]present[?] = "displaces"?
Is simple understanding of physics & mechanics or command of English no longer required for writers at Popular Mechanics?
? What's next? Filling fire extinguishers with gasoline?
Thank you, Department of "Education" and scumbag Teachers' Unions...
TXnMA
The more inflammable nitrogen...
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What? Nitrogen has a flammability rating of zero.
Probably so. Also, if the USAF had kept the buy at the original numbers, 750 aircraft, and not so foolishly precluded foreign purchases then the unit cost would have been not much more than and F-15 (adjusted for inflation). Lockheed-Martin saw the writing on the wall when the F-35 was conceived as a multi-national partnership which would share development costs and guarantee foreign sales.
Add to the fact that the Russian & Chinese F-22 wannabees are basically still-born for the same reason that the F-22 program was crippled. So the F-35 while somewhat more limited in concept, is ‘good enough’. I guess the plane you have is better than the one you don’t.
It's not a major flaw, it's very minor. Most fighters don't even have a system like this and they manage not to blow up. Not flying through thunderstorms is pretty much instinctive to any pilot anyways, telling one to not fly near a thunderstorm is like telling a chef not to cut himself while chopping vegetables. The engineers will fix it and life will go on, I'm gonna go out on a limb and predict that no F-35's will blow up because their nitrogen generating systems weren't working before then.
As for why not use a pressurized nitrogen tank? They add weight and have to be refilled which adds another unneeded layer of maintenance when they're on the ground. A self contained automatic system is much preferable.
This article is typical media BS of making a mountain out of a molehill. It's much ado about nothing designed to get the armchair aviation experts all worked up.
Why yes, it will initiate combustion (oxidization) of flammable organic materials such as fuel. It has been 45 plus years since I learned those reactions and dynamics in organic, and physical chemistry, so I guess I was slightly wrong. Sorry.
I have to laugh at a few FReepers that use them as a source for proof that all those wonder weapons allegedly are already deployed.
I guess those lurid magazine covers still work for the gullible. Been some years now since someone here insisted we had particle beam weapons on ships, making them invulnerable.
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