Posted on 12/16/2022 7:03:24 AM PST by Red Badger
A pilot ejected from a Lockheed Martin F-35B Lightning II fighter jet Thursday morning at the Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth, Texas, during a botched landing.
“We are aware of the F-35B crash on the shared runway at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base in Fort Worth,” a Lockheed spokesman said, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “Safety is our priority, and we will follow appropriate investigation protocol.”
VIDEO AT LINK...............
The video of the incident shows the F-35B hovering, then touching down, then elevating again, and tipping forward. Its wheels seem to collapse underneath the aircraft and damage the front of the plane. After the plane spun 180 degrees and back, the pilot ejected.
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin contacted White Settlement police at about 10:15 a.m., the Star-Telegram reported. Police said there were no fire reports. The pilot “landed apparently without injury,” according to CBS DFW.
The Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth is next to the military base, where the company tests the F-35. The Marine Corps operates the F-35B and can take off in a short distance and land like a helicopter, the outlet reported.
AVIATION Ping!.....................
The F-35, another Western weapon that does ‘everything’. LOL.
Exactly why pilots would still rather be in the F-16.
Need to get the politics out of picking our military contracts but - like everything else - it’s corrupted.
The recent F35 ditch into the ocean was a female pilot. Wonder if this is part of the ‘woke military’ where pilots are chosen to check a diversity box?
He touched down so hard he bounced then the front wheel gave way. Fortunate it didn’t explode.
I bet his underwear did.................
I watched this yesterday.
It looks like after a hard bounce landing something happened to the drive train feeding power to the forward lift fan, which caused a loss of lift from that fan and subsequent nose first second landing.
Interesting that the pilot had the presence of mind to wait until the aircraft leveled out after doing its little spin on the ground to punch out.
Looking at the aftermath, he probably didn’t need to punch out at all, but hindsight and all...
Been a really rough week in Fort Worth, tornados and now this crash.
Thank you Martin Baker!
Interesting that the pilot had the presence of mind to wait until the aircraft leveled out after doing its little spin on the ground to punch out.
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At that point it looked like the power was down enough that it was no longer moving. Either he wasn’t taking the chance that it would, or he panicked. Looked like a hard landing. Shute barely had time to open. In hindsight, he might have been better off not ejecting
My only concern with women pilots (since the modern stuff is less demanding of upper body strength), is what happens to the woman POW.
Scuttlebutt is that there was fire warnings lit up.
“At that point it looked like the power was down enough that it was no longer moving. Either he wasn’t taking the chance that it would, or he panicked. Looked like a hard landing.”
I suspect that she just wanted to get away from the plane, not knowing if it would blow due to a fuel leak.
Hard to tell from the oblique camera angle, but it looks like he landed in front of the jet and not too far away either. If that thing had still been pushing forward, he’d have had a lot of problems.
The spinning was from the main engine thrust. As the engine spooled down, the spin ended.
The seats in the F-35 are Zero-Zero, so the system was designed for that ejection, and everything worked perfectly. Seat separation, deployment of chute, and deployment of survival gear on lanyard.
Martin Baker should be proud.
Timing, timing, timing. ‘Tis everything.
Until you miss, tho.
In the vertical flight mode, thrust is provided by a lift fan in the middle of the aircraft and the aft nozzle which rotates 90 degrees down.
At touchdown, the lift fan had a malfunction, cause unknown, and now, all thrust is being provided by the aft nozzle, pointed straight down.
The pilot advanced the throttle to takeoff.
Since the lift fan is not producing lift, the aft nozzle thrust lifts the tail of the aircraft until the nose of the aircraft hits the ground.
The aircraft then tilts on its right wing and nose wheel & spins around.
At that point, it appears the pilot brings the power to idle, the plane reverses spin and returns to wings level.
The pilot then ejects.
It does appear that the pilot landed directly in front of the aircraft. Fortunately, the aircraft had stopped rolling.
My guess is that the lift fan malfunction was mechanical and not software (FADEC or fly-by-wire) related.
“Exactly why pilots would still rather be in the F-16.”
I love the Viper and have spent nearly my entire adult life with it.
But the ACES II ejection seat in the Viper has its own issues, especially at zero-zero. For a tall guy like me and a hardened canopy like on a Viper, the lack of breakers probably means death by a broken neck.
The US16E seat in the F35 is clearly superior, in all ways, and a proven design, having been used in the Texan, T-38, and Eurofighter for years.
“I bet his underwear did”
In orderly military fashion of course.
I’m just an ordinary bloke on this subject, but I suppose he was following protocol. I mean, you probably can’t tell from the cockpit after an incident like that if there is something burning, fuel spilling, and an explosion about to occur right under you.
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