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I understand it’s a testbed but I’d hate to think of flying that thing in combat with the airfoil blocking the pilots view to the rear.

You know those rear-view backing-up cameras that new cars increasingly have? How about a rear-facing camera on the tail feeding a pilot display?

You know those rear-view backing-up cameras that new cars increasingly have? How about a rear-facing camera on the tail feeding a pilot display?

Yeah, the MiG-31 Firefox (NOT the Foxhound) had one of those IIRC. Of course, it also had a thought-controlled weapons system (had to think in Russian tho).

The basic problem with the F-35 is that its been sold as a "fighter" when it's really a stealthy light attack bomber. More of a successor to the A-7 than the F-16 and legacy F/A-18. It'll perform pretty well in its intended role, and in a beyond-visual-range air-to-air environment where it has datalinking with F-22s and legacy F-15s/F-16s (a late-entry requirement due to the F-22s smaller numbers that's being worked on).

The helmet-mounted sighting system will help somewhat, once it gets worked out, but they are having some issues now with the enlarged headrest of the fancy new bang-seat impairing the pilots line of sight. Maybe they'll end up reverting to the ACES II seat ...