Forum: F-35 Lightning II

falcon_mr.b wrote:

[...., but these deliveries were made just in time to make room on the Flightline for jets coming off Final Assy. ...

BF-7 has flown at FW and 9,10& 11 are yet to fly and be delivered to Eglin for completion of LRIP 2. Smile

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neptune wrote:

falcon_mr.b wrote:

[...., but these deliveries were made just in time to make room on the Flightline for jets coming off Final Assy. ...

BF-7 has flown at FW and 9,10& 11 are yet to fly and be delivered to Eglin for completion of LRIP 2. Smile

True, but so far in this early part of the program, the jets have not arrived on the FL ready to fly...
BTW, 9, 10 & 11 have been delivered to the Flightline, but have subsequently been sent to the coatings facility and have been there for a while. They should be close to "flyable" when they get out.

Have any of the "Bees" flown conventionally without the fan gear? Question

A cg adjustment in the software would be necessary, Ha! Laughing

sferrin wrote:

maus92 wrote:

Those stabilators are really working....

That's what they're for. Rolling Eyes

Watch the movement along the longitudinal axis as he rolls out on the mains. Bumpy runway or bounce?

maus92 wrote:

sferrin wrote:

maus92 wrote:

Those stabilators are really working....

That's what they're for. Rolling Eyes

Watch the movement along the longitudinal axis as he rolls out on the mains. Bumpy runway or bounce?

Hard to tell. Could be a combination with wind as well.

'maus92' said: "... Those stabilators are really working...."... I would imagine that at that point the nose wants to drop at touchdown (similar to an A4G for example). To keep the nose up in an A4G for 'aero braking' (which was usually forbidden or frowned upon on the short runways at NAS Nowra) one has to - at touch down - apply a lot of back stick to keep the nose UP and then juggle it to keep it from over UP or going down again. Danger for the A-4 was that in high wind gusts it was possible to over rotate that nose high attitude and get airborne again (good lift at low airspeed if spoilers don't deploy or go back in if wheels get off the runway again). So for an A4G it was just a party trick made even more difficult in the longer nosed TA4G.

Anyway in a way I have described why we see the F-35B 'bobbles' down the runway 'aerobraking' - it is due to the full weight of the aircraft not being on the main wheels and any other effects such as gusting (cross) wind as mentioned by others already. Once the nosewheel comes down then either the aircraft is allowed to roll out to slowly decelerate to minimise brake wear or brakes are applied to turn off early or whatever.

In an A4G once one 'over-rotated' once doing aero-braking probably one never bothered with it again. Very Happy

Who needs the hassle. Attached is a poor quality video from 30 June 1984 - part of the last 'mini air display' of the A4Gs before they were onsold to the RNZAF. Anyway one can see the difficulty in keeping the TA4G nose up; and the wing spoilers are out. I'm told the wind was strong southerly that cold winter's day (RunWay is 21 at NAS Nowra).

Forum: F-35 Lightning II

F-35B arrives at Eglin AFB