Posted on 04/10/2019 6:41:27 AM PDT by Freeport
TOKYO (Reuters) - Search and rescue teams found wreckage from a crashed Japanese F-35 stealth fighter in the Pacific Ocean close to northern Japan, and are scouring the waters for the missing pilot, authorities said on Wednesday.
The aircraft, less than a year old, was the first F-35 assembled in Japan and was aloft for only 28 minutes on Tuesday before contact was lost, a defense official said. The plane had logged a total of 280 hours in the air, he added.
It was only the second F-35 to crash since the aircraft’s first flight in 2006 and could reignite concern about the F-35 having only one engine.
Manufacturer Lockheed Martin is competing for orders in Finland and Switzerland against the twin-engined Eurofighter Typhoon and Boeing F/A-18E/F jet.
The accident could influence Switzerland’s decision, but Finland could still pick the F-35 as it is close to Russia, said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
“I would be surprised if there was a common catastrophic fault hidden away in the F-35A,” he added. “It’s pretty unlikely given the large number of flight hours already completed.”
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Even if he ejected in time, hypothermia would kill him................
And he’s mixed nomenclatures too: P-8 Poseidon, P-3 Orion.
No it isn’t. Hope he’s found OK, but that’s not the way to bet. Thoughts and prayers for him and his loved ones.
Haven’t there been quite a few F-16 crashes, compared to F-15?
Having one engine on a warplane does seem like a basic problem. If the plane is worth $100 million, that means that every turbine blade, every bearing, every SPOF in the engine carries the value of the entire plane plus the life pilot, at least if its flying over water.
F-35 engine is very high performance, very advanced engine operating at the outer bounds of what a gas turbine is capable of. They’re pushing a lot of things to the limit in that engine. There’s simply no getting around that.
When you add to that the problem that if the aircraft goes down and the enemy gets hold of the wreck, you’ve lost the entire multi-billion dollar R&D effort that went into producing it. That means that every turbine blade, every guide vane, every bearing, every hot-section part, carries a multi-billion dollar investment on a single point of failure. Just doesn’t seem like a good situation to me.
The aircraft is the more important part. The pilot, unfortunate for his family, can be replaced on the line, but the technology cannot be allowed to fall in the wrong hands.
April waters off of Northern Japan, in early April:
Hmmm....I’d say he’d have a couple hours, if even that, assuming he could get into the raft.
I still think the pilot is sitting in a North Korean brothel, drinking Johnnie Walker Blue.
The “wreckage” story is BS.
At least North Korea doesnt have it.
...and I was trying to feel a little good about all this and there you go appealing to my cynicism.
One of the F-16’s problems was a poorly routed cable to the artificial horizon. The cable had enough slack to rub through the insulation and short out, really hampering the pilot’s spatial orientation in poor or no visibility situations.
GD (LM?) wanted to fix the problem, but the Pentagon dragged its feet on okaying the design change and maintenance bulletins.
Red October was the first thing that came to mind when the aircraft simply had its transponder go off without any warning-and no indication of a fireball or explosion.
I recall watching videos of test pilots in college. What I was told by the F4 pilot who was our ROTC commander was that when a pilot is riding an aircraft down like that, they never stop talking—they are trying to solve the problem right into the ground.
While this was not a test pilot situation, I always keep this in the back of my mind when something like this happens.
If you were a young Japanese pilot, running one of the hottest commodities in the air would the allure of a ton of money, hot women, and a life as a hero in China cause you to want to turn off the transponder and make a run for the hills?
How much do WE pay for the most recent Migs?
It is something to consider. I am pretty confident OUR pilots would not choose to go to China. But life here is pretty good.
The first thing I did when hearing about this was pull up a world map and see how far it was to NK, Russia or China.
625 miles in an F-35 @ 1200kts is lasts just a little longer than a union smoke break.
That is precisely why I oppose the F-35 as the replacement for Canada’s F-18s.
A single engine aircraft is not well-suited to extended patrols over barrenlands. Redundancy is vital to the safety of the aircraft and pilot.
I can’t find fault with your reasoning.
I guess F-35’s ok if you’ve got air superiority over a region. Unfortunately, I don’t think you can ever have air superiority over the ocean.
The lesson of multiple redundancy is so basic, so well established, so incontrovertible.
Maybe fighter jocks will say “they have redundancy because don’t fly without a wingman.” Maybe that’s how the military thinks, I don’t know.
I’m glad they’ve got the aircraft under guard at least in this case, and I hope the pilot is ok.
Depends on his flight suit.
How fast can we put a capable salvage ship and aircraft carrier fleet on top of the wreckage?
Does the f35 use MCAS?
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