Posted on 04/14/2010 9:15:06 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
When the Marine Corps commandant says equipment he is buying for his people works and is safe, we listen. So when Gen. James Conway told us the vertical takeoff version of the Joint Strike Fighter was not too hot to damage carriers or amphibious ships and was not too loud to harm crews or communities, we listened. So did some folks on Capitol Hill and they questioned whether the Marine leadership was singing too sweet a song.
Testing documents obtained by DoD Buzz, said by congressional sources to be the most recent available, raise serious questions about the effects of heat and noise from the F-35B on pilots and ships’ crews, on ship decks and on critical flight equipment.
For example, an operational assessment of the JSF says that heat from the STOVL version may result in “severe F-35 operating restrictions and or costly facility upgrades, repairs or both.” The OT-IID report says “thermal management” will “increase the number of sorties required to prepare an operational unit for deployment during summer months” at most American bases. Overall, it rates basing as red: “unlikely to meet criteria — significant shortfall.”
Another document, a briefing chart rating the plane’s systems, rates as “red” flight operations noise “below deck and island structure” and “on the flight.” Direct exhaust “deck personnel burns” are rated red, as is “personnel blow down” and “off-gassing.” On top of that, the non-skid coating is rated red, as is the impact of the plane’s power systems on “spotting” and the plane’s outwash “on spotting of adjacent aircraft.”
(Excerpt) Read more at dodbuzz.com ...
“James Conway told us the vertical takeoff version of the Joint Strike Fighter was not too hot to damage carriers or amphibious ships “
Wow, “too hot” to do heat damage. Poorly written article.
Ping!
I knew it! A camel is a mouse built to government specifications!
The F-35 is stuck in the middle — too encumbered to be an MRF and nowhere near the capability of the F-22. It is a rhino in a tar pit.
Yup. The F22 project may have been a corrupt overpriced boondoggle (as are almost all fedgov efforts), but it at least created a truly awesome air superiority fighter. And once you own the air, you can use flying busses with bomb capacity to own the ground. Zero, of course, is too stupid to understand that.
The F35 is trying to be all things at once, which ensures failure at all things. But the project is even more of a boondoggle because so many more hands are involved, with more money to kick back to “right people,” and it’s a mess.
Welcome to “national security” Chicago style...
Ping
Two really good articles. The first discusses the ways that MV-22 operations have been adapted to lessen deck damage, and the second solicts ideas from industry for heat tolerant non-slip deck coatings, and flight deck heat dissipation techniques.
ONR BAA Announcement Number 09-031: Flight Deck Thermal Management
At least with the Ospry, you have cool air prop wash to help mitigate the exhaust heat. But even that probably doesn’t help if the engine is idling for a long period of time.
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dont they have airconditioning.
The fundamental difference between V-22 and F-35 is that the Osprey taxis on deck and waits for takeoff with the jet exhaust pointed downward, while the F-35 only needs the nozzle down for brief periods during takeoff and landing. But the F-35 exhaust is orders of magnitude more powerful and hotter.
TC
It should be renamed F-111-II.
I saw one down at the airbase down at Warminster PA, but when our family lived at San Diego CA I seem to remember one tested out there.
Certainly eliminated heat problems. Must have been a make work design proposal like the F35. Never got anywhere but the spent millions on it too.
I saw one down at the airbase down at Warminster PA, but when our family lived at San Diego CA I seem to remember one tested out there.
Certainly eliminated heat problems. Must have been a make work design proposal like the F35. Never got anywhere but the spent millions on it too.
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