Lockheed Martin F-35A, B, C and other ideas

[Taiidantomcat]

F-22 style fins:

[PR19_Kit]

Hehehehehe 

[Taiidantomcat]

[rickshaw]

Interesting choice for a Red Arrows mount.  Haven't they always been on trainer aircraft, flown by instructors?

[PR19_Kit]

Interesting choice for a Red Arrows mount.  Haven't they always been on trainer aircraft, flown by instructors?

So far............  

But before then the RAF's aerobatic teams were always drawn from front line fighter squadrons, The Black Arrows, The Blue Diamonds, the Tigers etc.

That's some pretty sharp artwork there BTW, whoever did it. 

[Mossie]

There's also been proposals that a four to six ship Typhoon team in the manner of Thunderbirds/Blue Angels would be cheaper to run than a nine ship Hawk formation.

[Taiidantomcat]

Doors and doors!





Speaking of T-birds...

[PR19_Kit]

Has there ever been a  proposal for a 2 seater F-35?

If not, how are they going to train the pilots? OK, so the darn thing is a lot easier to fly than a Harrier (Don't believe me? Read John Farley's book I mentioned elsewhere...) but to a newly trained basic pilot it's got to be a bit of handfull.

[pyro-manic]

I think the Israelis have been clamouring for a two-seater, but training is all done on a simulator IIRC.

[Thorvic]

F-35 training will be mainly Simulator based, they may make use LIFT trainers like the Hawk T2 to emulate flying the F-35 but i suspect they would need to emulate the Helmet based information system to be an effective training tool. I don't think we'll see a two seater version, unless the training units at Eglin & Yuma encounter serious difficulties in training new pilots, the engineering, cost and time needed to get a two seater variant are prohibitive as all effort is focused on testing the aircraft, identifying and resolving issues identified as a reult of the testing and programming the flight control software to the combat capable block 3 and beyond.

Make for an interesting Whiff build of course.

[PR19_Kit]

Make for an interesting Whiff build of course.

I see the cockpit section of a Harrier T10 or an Su-27B grafted on in front of the lift fan....... 

[Rheged]

Interesting choice for a Red Arrows mount.  Haven't they always been on trainer aircraft, flown by instructors?

So far............  

But before then the RAF's aerobatic teams were always drawn from front line fighter squadrons, The Black Arrows, The Blue Diamonds, the Tigers etc.

That's some pretty sharp artwork there BTW, whoever did it. 

Any chance of the dark blues reforming "Simon's Circus"?

[PR19_Kit]

Any chance of the dark blues reforming "Simon's Circus"?

Or the Scimitar flying nutters who did the opposed landing in pairs, folding their wings at the appropriate moment to avoid expensive crunching noises? Does an F-35B have folding wings? I suppose it must have, the lifts on a QE Class carrier aren't THAT big!

[Thorvic]

Any chance of the dark blues reforming "Simon's Circus"?

Or the Scimitar flying nutters who did the opposed landing in pairs, folding their wings at the appropriate moment to avoid expensive crunching noises? Does an F-35B have folding wings? I suppose it must have, the lifts on a QE Class carrier aren't THAT big!

Nope only the F-35C had Folding wing tips, the F-35B has the shorter span and doesn't require them. The QEC lifts are fine as they were designed to accomodate the F-35, and larger sized aircraft. 

[Weaver]

Some interesting display options with Red Arrows F-35Bs:

Mass vertical take-off
Mass "Bow" to the crowd
Two or more planes "hover-dancing" around each other
Opposed Pair fly along runway in opposite directions and stop dead nose-to-nose