Forum: F-35 Lightning II

Raise your hand if you think the F-35B will have the most reliable engine for a single engine jet fighter, as promised.

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Reliability relative to what?

So what single engine fighter do you believe is blessed with the most reliable engine? The MiG-21 perhaps?
The early F-16/F100 years weren't marked by stellar reliability and I don't imagine the JF-17 and J-10 are setting any records. I don't know how the various Dassault products fare, but I honestly suspect the current F-16 versions are somewhat more reliable than the M2000 (because they get a lot more debugging and overall investment due to the larger number in service and successive growth).

I predict there will be several engine-related incidents over the first ten years of service and much hyperbolic press coverage will accompany them. (Twin-engine advocates will crow that the predicted doom has arrived across many a forum.) Then we WILL see the most reliable single-engine fighter engine deliver on its promise reliability. Any new engine takes a little bit of time to get the last kinks worked out, but both Pratt and GE have delivered successively more reliable engines year after year. I see no reason to think the F135 will break that trend.

What matrix, no other jet driven lift fan system in production?

-Single engine jet?
-Compared to recent (modern manufacturing) or ever?

Please provide more definition for your question.

I meant in relation to other single engine jet fighters. The F-35B adds lots of lovely complexity:
* All that gearing and ductwork.
* Highly weight constrained.
* Using all sorts of brand new processes and materials.

It will be far more reliable than the XFV-12A for sure! Wink

hcobb wrote:

Raise your hand if you think the F-35B will have the most reliable engine for a single engine jet fighter, as promised.

Your poll dosn't have a yes so I guess it can't be. TSFG

It depends. How good are the engine maintainers in service with your particular country?

hcobb wrote:

I meant in relation to other single engine jet fighters. The F-35B adds lots of lovely complexity:
* All that gearing and ductwork.
* Highly weight constrained.
* Using all sorts of brand new processes and materials.

After the development is completed about Block 3.0? The steady-state production should be optimised. Those planes, at that time, will experience IHMO greater reliability than previous single engine fighters. This is enhanced by the new maintenance system "Autonomic Logistics Information System" (ALIS) and Computerized Maintenance Management System which can download and analyze the inflight records from each system. Those A-799 "gripes" (nothing found) can now be identified as "which" loose connection that only occurs above 7gs, etc.

hcobb is right, we should stop developing all new technology!

hcobb...is there a reason you won't let anybody vote "yes"?

Quote:

hcobb...is there a reason you won't let anybody vote "yes"?

The absence is tongue in cheek, really.

I personally have grave doubts about how well the F-35B will work, once the Marines get it down in the mud and the gravel.

Surely the same service can not be proudly stating both of these things:

The Marines are planning to use the F-35B from "unimproved surfaces at austere bases" and are preparing landing spots with "special, high-temperature concrete designed to handle the heat from the JSF".

Some of the issues described by hcobb above are overstated. There are quite a few threads on this forum describing how USMC intend to use their F-35Bs both ashore and afloat. Simply put no aircraft does well down in the mud and gravel. So what gives there? The reporter suggesting 'heat issues' for concrete was repeating the self praise of the concreter. That heat issue has been covered in the vertical landing threads. The F-35B heat/exhaust environment is similar to the AV-8b, which is well known to the Marines. They know how to deal with it - even if some find that difficult to understand.

@ hcobb... Because the F-35B has a 450 NM combat radius vs the AV-8B's 300 NM combat radius it is not going to need as austere basing very often. Their aren't very many places in the world that are more then 800 KM away from a paved runway.

Last edited by FlightDreamz on Dec 31, 2011 - 01:39 AM; edited 1 time in total

Really should have had some "yes" answers in this poll (even if the "yes" came with some caveat's)! Rolling Eyes

I agree with Shaken and alloycowboy all new technology will have it's "teething" phase, but I believe the F-35A & C will prove to have a good single engine track record. And the F-35B will be light years beyond the AV-8 Harriers once they get all the kinks worked out of the lift fan doors, auxiliary air inlets, etc. see http://www.aviationweek.com/media/image ... taway.html

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

F-35B will have the most complex single engine for a jet