[Red Badger]

AVIATION Ping!.....................

[BobL]

The F-35, another Western weapon that does ‘everything’. LOL.

[TigerClaws]

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?

[DainBramage]

He touched down so hard he bounced then the front wheel gave way. Fortunate it didn’t explode.

[mad_as_he$$]

Been a really rough week in Fort Worth, tornados and now this crash.

Thank you Martin Baker!

[bobbo666]

Timing, timing, timing. ‘Tis everything.

Until you miss, tho.

[mylife]

ejection

[logi_cal869]

I’m sick of these headlines.

It wasn’t a crash, nor a crash landing.

It was a mishap with the VTOL fan, the single piece of lousy engineering for which I hate this aircraft.

The result was an ejection, fortunately without either loss of pilot nor aircraft.

Labeling it a crash landing is semantics for reports, but hyped for headlines.

[Paal Gulli]

The nose gear only came off AFTER the nose of the plane contacted the runway.

Calling that a "crash landing" is more than just a little hyperbolic. The F-35B is carrier-landing capable, and carrier landings aren't meant to be pretty. You don't feel around for the runway, you slam it down with authority. That thing has just one engine but when executing STOVL maneuvers, thrust is directed downwards through two separate ducts, one fore and one aft. If looks to me like something went wonky with the front duct during the "pogo" maneuver.

When the pogo was at apogee the nose dropped abruptly, as if there was insufficient thrust from the forward duct. The nose gear appeared to be performing normally during the second touch-down, right up until the instant that the nose impacted.

This is a screenshot of about half-way between when the nose gear contacted the runway and the nose hit the tarmac. If you watched this in slo-mo, you could see the front strut is compressing like it's supposed to and everything is happening by the book. At 720P, the nose impacts the runway in the same frame that the nose gear begins to noticeably bend backwards. So the nose gear failure was effect, not cause, and for all you can see in this video, it might have failed as the result of structural damage cause by the face plant.

The greater question is, do you qualify for the "Caterpillar Club" if you eject ... while the a/c is on the ground?

[Paal Gulli]

From The Times of Israel:

"...At the Pentagon, a spokesman said that the aircraft was being flown at the time of the crash by a US government pilot, although it had not been transferred to the military yet by manufacturer Lockheed Martin...."

So he probably was either a test/evaluation pilot, or possibly a ferry pilot, or both. In any case, it wasn't a Marine.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-f-35-pilot-ejects-from-fighter-jet-in-texas-in-failed-landing/

[Paal Gulli]

Diagram of the engine and lift package:

Main nozzle in the image above is in the forward flight position.

Here's a detailed image of the engine and associated ductwork prior to installation (too large to post here, and too large for my usual image host to make a thumbnail of it):

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/F-35B_STOVL_Engine_and_Lift_Fan.JPG

Thew main duct is in the vertical lift position and the opposite (right) side roll nozzle ductwork is hidden by the driveshaft.

[doorgunner69]

That sure was a rather hard landing, no wonder he bounced.

AV-8 landings seem a lot more soft. He might have screwed up the flight control system with the bounce takeoff?

[shotgun]

Somewhere John McStain is smiling

[Mat_Helm]

Just before touch down there is white puff of smoke which likely is hydraulic or leak or failure and possibly for fan drive shaft. The hard touchdown may be related and pilot may have throttled up for missed approach landing, but the from fan failed and the imbalanced lift thrust from rear pitched the jet up from the rear and caused the nose gear to fail. After spinning around on the ground still at landing thrust because the jet is weight on wheels the lifting fan door begins to close. Because the engine is still at a high thrust level with the rear nozzle in landing configuration, when the fan door began to close the F-35 automatically ejected the pilot.

[NonValueAdded]

better late than never