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To: z3n
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

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.

14 posted on 12/16/2022 7:18:52 AM PST by Yo-Yo (Is the /Sarc tag really necessary? Pray for President Biden: Psalm 109:8)
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To: Yo-Yo; z3n
Here's what it looks like to me.

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.

16 posted on 12/16/2022 7:40:25 AM PST by FtrPilot
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