If you talk to F-35 fans, in particular military pilots or Lockheed employees, they’ll regale you with official-sounding terms and superlatives about how the design is “Maturing” (No bugs have been worked out yet) and they’ll basically rehash information from the sales brochure. What they won’t do is discuss known issues that are preventing the planes from being flown, or components that are not functioning according to their expected capabilities. The helmet is especially troublesome, and the gun installed is glitch-ridden, and would be useless anyway due to its diminutive number of rounds. I would say the exercise which supposedly vindicated F-35 defenders was aptly named, because the data simply does not mirror reality:
Lockheed was smart (devious?) enough to put subcontractors in as many different congressional districts as possible, thus making it difficult for any Senator or Representative to attemp killing the plane when the costs started rising and problems persisted. The thought of using an F-35 to replace the A-10 as a ground support aircraft is laughable. Besides, as several have said, no commander is going to send an F-35 on a low level strafing run for fear of losing it. We have all seen pictures of a Wart Hog returning from a mission full of bullet holes and some parts shot off, but they still made it home. Try that with the F-35.
Fighters are different in that regard. You yank the power, pop the speed brakes and tack-on a little ‘alpha’, and that 50 knots will disappear quickly. I remember a botched maneuver by the Thunderbirds which featured four F-16s in slow flight passing by in a box formation. A fifth plane would pass through that box at very high speed. Something didn’t look right to the fast mover, and he aborted the pass, commencing this action about three quarters of a mile from the formation. It was amazing to witness how quickly the pilot was able to slam the brakes on that hurtling Falcon, and join the formation for their next pass.
Single engine aircraft are a risk, but if the plane can be maneuvered away from guns or missiles, that risk is reduced significantly. The benefits of one engine are lower fuel consumption and operational simplicity. These newer planes have so many advanced systems and powerplant monitoring/alert/warning screens, tones and voices, you can’t miss a malfunction.
The entire F-35 concept–Jack of All Trades, Master of None–doomed the design from the start. The plane can’t dogfight, because its turning capability is nil. Some pilots poo poo that aspect, claiming they’ll just RADAR Identify a target, and Fox One them out of existence. According to Mr. Sprey, the BVR Missile Kill would just as likely be a Cessna, Airliner (Remember Iran…) or Friendly Fire Casualty. The Close Air Support role is indeed laughable, mainly because the airframe cannot withstand the curtains of led which will arise from anti-aircraft guns, Stingers or even assault rifles. In addition, the means CAS pilots employ to spot targets entail tight turns, slower speeds, and Mark One Eyeball Target Acquisition Systems. The F-35 cannot possibly perform such maneuvers. Our taxes are played fast and loose by a congress that is influenced by weapons contractors in the manner you’ve described. It’s time to take a hard look at that cabal, and clean house of big spenders and wheeler dealers.
Perhaps you haven’t read about AF captain Kim Campbell call sign Killer Chick. Flying an A-10, she incurred antiaircraft fire damaging hydraulic flight controls. Without hesitation, she switched to manual mode, cable controls most pilots never encounter in their flying career. Most likely yanking as hard as she can to maintain control. Rather than eject over Baghdad in enemy territory, she wrestled her broke A-10 back to base. Snapshots recorded bullet holes everywhere. She was back in the air in another A-10. Just doing her job.
I might speculate about females in military aircraft. Maybe ‘KC’ feels a maternal instinct to protect her brood on land when she knows they may come in harms way. Females qualifying to perform in combat roles, they may be equal to males without doubt. Females already fly F-18s from aircraft carriers. Never underestimate the power of women. After all, many grandmothers were young women during WWII and worked in industry bereft of men sent off to war. They manufactured aircraft and flew them across the Atlantic to supply pilots with new airplanes. These old biddies are to be remembered and admired no less than the men who went to war. The women now filling combat roles take their lead from those women in the past.
‘Almost 20 years in service’ — FIRST Flight of the first SDD airplane was in Dec, 2015, and Air Force / F-35A IOC was in 2016. No, not ‘almost 20 years in service’ — LOL
RIGHT! Because the F-16 is a great twin-engined aircraft. Oh, no - wait! - its SINGLE-engined, and the US Air Force bought thousands of them, and still uses them, as do over 25 other countries’ Air Forces, world-wide.
Interesting choice of words. I bet by the time the pandemic really is over we will speak about any live event or in-person event as “traditional” format. Kind of reminds me of “conventional” landing gear.