http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6BsCvDgbsc&playnext_from=TL&videos=OKvuXtXEFl4
Posted on 05/10/2010 10:13:44 PM PDT by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The anticipation was palpable as Vought engineers and our customer watched Lockheed Martin's F-35C Lightning II Carrier Variant dangle from its harnessed position just below the rafters in building 94 at the Jefferson Street site. When the wheels reached their 138 knot speed, the countdown began. 10, 9, 8, 7... The lanyard releasing the quick release safety latch was pulled and the jet was dropped. It was over in five brief seconds.
. As a fighter jet approaches the deck of a carrier, forty-six thousand pounds of airplane is traveling at 138 knots and hitting the deck with a thud, stressing the airframe and especially the jet's landing gear with thousands of pounds of pressure. Every part of the gear must withstand that tremendous stress time after time with no structural failure.
So how can we assure that the gear is suitable for carrier landings, and there won't be any catastrophic failures? How do we prove that the design engineering was correct? That's where Vought's Test Lab comes in. The lab is capable of lifting a fully-loaded, fullscale aircraft up to eleven feet above the floor ... and dropping it. Lockheed Martin has contracted with us to drop test the F-35C Lightning II Carrier Variant, a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine stealth fighter.
Hundreds of wires snake along the sleek lines of the light green jet, connected to an array of instruments that are streaming signals back to a computer for correlation to computer models that engineers spent many months designing. This data acquisition system is measuring every quiver, shudder, and pulse that is emitted from the test jet. Technically speaking, however, F-35 Drop Test Director Tom Foster says they are measuring strain, acceleration, deflection and load data. This is where the rubber meets the flight deck, so to speak.
(Excerpt) Read more at asdnews.com ...
I’m surprised it is only an 11 foot drop. It seems the pilots set them down much harder than that.
grumman drop testing thier fighters from 25 ft.Eleven feet sounds a little weak.I hope all the black boxes are built for alot of abuse.
I didn’t realize Vought had survived the LTV debacle. Glad to know they are still around.
Later in the article, it mentions “Vought is one of only two test labs remaining in the United States that has full-scale carrier suitability drop test capabilities. The other is at Boeing, St. Louis.” — not much capability left, is there? I wonder which one Gates/Obama will shut down?
Can you do a drop test on Rosie O’donnell?
Later in the article, it mentions “Vought is one of only two test labs remaining in the United States that has full-scale carrier suitability drop test capabilities. The other is at Boeing, St. Louis.”
But for the vagaries of corporate mergers and renamings, the last sentence might have said "The other is at McDonnell, St. Louis."
IIRC - Vought is also part of the Boeing 787 production line.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6BsCvDgbsc&playnext_from=TL&videos=OKvuXtXEFl4
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Definitely good to know - my dad worked there from 1953 - 1982.
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