Posted on 11/03/2014 6:49:41 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
The U.S. Navy conducted the first arrested landing of an F-35C Joint Strike Fighter carrier variant on November 3. Cmdr. Tony Wilson, a Navy test pilot, landed test aircraft CF-03 on the flight deck of the carrier USS Nimitz off the coast of San Diego after flying from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma, Ariz.
The first arrested landing came at the start of initial at-sea developmental testing of the F-35C, which is expected to last for two weeks. The carrier testing involves test aircraft CF-03 and CF-05, both fitted with a redesigned tail hook after problems with the initial design delayed carrier testing. This is the first of three at-sea test phases planned for the F-35C.
In May 2013, the Navy said it planned to declare initial operational capability of the carrier variant by February 2019. The F-35 Joint Program Office said the first arrested landing “reinforces Navy-industry partnership goals to deliver the operational aircraft to the fleet in 2018.”
“Today is a landmark event in the development of the F-35C,” said Wilson, who is attached to the Navy’s VX-23 Air Test and Evaluation Squadron based at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. “It is the culmination of many years of hard work by a talented team of thousands. I'm very excited to see America’s newest aircraft on the flight deck of her oldest aircraft carrier, the USS Nimitz.”
There is no VTOL (Vertical Take Off and Landing) version of the F-35. The F-35B Marine Corps version is a STOVL (Short Take Off and Vertical Landing).
> Cheney killed the F-14.
At the urging of Lockheed who wanted it killed because they thought it would threaten the 35 if it continued and Lockheed stood to make a lot more money on the 35.
that pilot is trying to hide his face.
What were they thinking? Were they thinking?
ARGGGGGGHHHH! Get that thing back IN The Box!
Quick!!!
Heh, it was pretty hideous looking.
I loved the F-14. Favorite plane, looked like a predator when it flew, and when you saw one with the rare configuration of four Phoenix, two Sparrow and two Sidewinder missiles, with the drop tanks on, it looked like a killing machine.
And when it took off in afterburner, it was the kind of thing any normal man gets a kick out of...loud noise and big flames.
The first time I ever saw a plane supersonic was a Tomcat, and it was...alien. It was unreal, to see this thing go zooming by faster than anything I had ever seen, and make absolutely no sound at all. It was unworldly to me, like a UFO.
Then the incredibly loud and hard edged “BOOOOOOM!”
But that said, the plane, I suspect, did have to go, I was told it was difficult to maintain, took a lot of man-hours and money to keep it going.
I believe it. I used to see three of them tied up on the fantail, side by side, nose cones pointed towards the bow, and trash cans underneath the planes to catch dripping fuel.
But, wow. what a plane.
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