Forum: General F-35 Forum

Marines to start F-35 training at Florida air base By Andrea Shalal-Esa, Aug 22, 2012

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/08/ ... mesticNews

"Reuters) - U.S. Marine Corps pilots will soon begin training flights on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at a Florida air base, underscoring the service's confidence in the new radar-evading fighter jet, two people familiar with the plans said.

Lockheed Martin Corp has delivered 10 F-35B model jets -- which can take off from shorter runways and land like a helicopter -- to Eglin Air Force Base in the Florida panhandle.

Test pilots began preliminary orientation flights of the F-35B at the air base in May and have completed nearly 200 flights to date, but the flights been limited in their scope and speed. For instance, they have not yet been able to conduct vertical landings at the air base.

Up to now, training of future pilots for the F-35B model has been confined to simulators and the classroom....

...Air Force and Marine Corps F-35 pilot training was initially slated to begin about a year ago, but was delayed by the Pentagon after its chief tester, Michael Gilmore, raised concerns about the maturity of the new plane and its software.

Gilmore, the Pentagon's director of operational test and evaluation, declined to comment on Wednesday on the Marine Corps' decision to skip the operational utility evaluation, according to his spokeswoman....

...The Marines are likely to be the first of the U.S. military services to declare them ready for "initial operational capability" because they do not plan to wait for more sophisticated software upgrades required by the other services...."

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Eglin flies 200th F-35 sortie By Dave Majumdar on August 24, 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/the-d ... ortie.html

"Eglin has flown its 200th sortie in the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter... US Marine Corps Major Tye "OD" Bachmann had the distinction of flying that mission.

The pace of training at the base is ramping up, the jets no longer need a chase plane and they'll soon be doing aerial refuelings. The Marines are also gearing up to train for short take-off and vertical landing operations. So things are coming along at the 33rd Fighter Wing using the "crawl, walk, run" methodology...."

That's it.

Article (as opposed to blog post) by same author on same topic.

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articl ... ie-375794/

Gotta laff at this sense of humour: "...The aircraft are predictable and seem to be maintainable..." Very Happy

I liked "...since the early days...". Careful Major -- you have a little 'salt' showing with that one... Wink

Maj. Richard Rusnok h/t to: [ http://whythef35.blogspot.com.au/2012/0 ... -full.html ]

Portrait and Profile // August 16th, 2012 // By Marine Corps News

http://marinesmagazine.dodlive.mil/2012 ... rd-rusnok/

"...How does flying the F-35B Lightning II compare to other jets flown?

F-35 is incredibly easy to fly which is a testament to the personnel who conceived and built the flight control system. The F-35B in STOVL mode is unmatched in stability and raw power. There are two primary benefits to this level of stability. The obvious one is safety. The aircraft does everything it can to protect the pilot and itself from exceeding an aerodynamic or structural limit. The second benefit is that the less a pilot needs to concentrate on basic stick and rudder skills, the more he/she can devote to fighting the aircraft and fulfilling the MAGTF commander’s intent....

...Why do you think the F-35B is better for the Marine Corps than other models like the F-35A?

The F-35B offers incredible basing flexibility to the Marine Corps – from ships at sea, to small forward operating bases, to main air bases. Most importantly, the three variants of the F-35 share the same mission systems components and software. In conventional flight, the three variants have essentially the same flight characteristics with some minor exceptions. The cockpits are virtually identical and there are only a few things that would clue you off that you are in one variant or the other if you did not already know. The transition between different variants is pretty seamless. Because of this similarity, the three services flying this jet are already working to develop common tactics which will only benefit the MAGTF and the joint commander in the long run....

...Do you ever take snacks with you on the really long flights?

Most of the time we are too busy on our test flights to even consider snacking. I always have a water bottle with me, however, since it is very easy to get dehydrated while pulling G’s and while breathing oxygen. Even then I only drink when I have an extended break in the action or we are refueling on the ground...."

Prolly best to read at URL but the guts of it above.

For 'neptune' on the other thread some 'fun' Very Happy

http://www.f-16.net/f-16_forum_viewtopic-t-20288.html

[quote="spazsinbad"][b]Maj. Richard Rusnok... I have an extended break in the action or we are refueling on the ground..quote]

Usually if they are refueling, the pilot is complete on the post-flight and is de-briefing. This comment seems to indicate he is either in the plane or near it and either way is preparing for a follow-on flight! IMHO! Smile

The Skyhawk could be 'hot refuelled' via the probe on the ground (with safety precautions) and engine running I believe also. I don't know if the other USMC jets can be hot refuelled but several times I have seen mention of F-35 sorties back to back with hot refuelling taking place in between - again I don't know if engine is running.

Just for entertainment here is a scenario from some movie 'flattened' by one in the know (best read the article to get the earlier gist)

The Ultimate Fighter? By Richard Whittle | Air & Space magazine, February 2012

"With the F-35, Lockheed Martin takes a turn trying to make one combat plane that can do everything."

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-avi ... amp;page=5

“Totally hokey,” sneers Lockheed test pilot Billie Flynn, immediate past president of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, as he watches a Green Lantern scene in which an F-35 takes on two bat-shaped Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles, or UCAVs, in a computer-generated dogfight. The UCAVs prove so relentless the hero has to lure them to an altitude at which all three airplanes suffer compressor stalls and lose engine power. “Couldn’t happen” in real life, Flynn explains, because the F-35’s engine would restart automatically. Next, as the UCAVs plummet to earth, the hero’s F-35 goes into a flat spin. “Couldn’t happen,” Flynn says again. Flight tests to prove it still lie ahead, but wind tunnel analysis and computer simulations say “there is no way that we can get this airplane into a spin of any kind. The flight control surfaces are far too effective to permit that to happen.”....
______________

Mebbe this bit can go in the BurbageBioThread but I can't be bovvered.... Embarassed

"...Keeping the F-35 sold despite its delays and cost overruns has turned out to be what might be called the ultimate challenge, but his personality and background make Burbage suited for the job. At six-foot-four and 220 pounds—a Halloween party costume earned him the radio call sign “Conan” when he was a pilot—he played offensive tackle on the Naval Academy’s football team, so holding the line is an old skill. Burbage flew turboprop E-2 Hawkeye airborne-warning airplanes from carriers in the early 1970s, then became a Navy test pilot. In the Naval Reserve, he flew A-7 attack jets for six years.

Burbage led the company’s F-22 program from 1995 to 1999, taking the Raptor from first flight through initial flight testing. He’d barely settled into his next post, as president of Lockheed’s Marietta, Georgia aircraft plant, when company leaders asked him to head the JSF program. At first, Burbage wasn’t thrilled. With the F-22, he’d had enough long hours and stress to last a lifetime. In the end, he decided he simply couldn’t resist the chance to head up “the biggest thing going” in his line of work: making combat aircraft. Equally important, he adds, was “my pilot brotherhood. I just like being around airplanes, and I like being around guys that fly ’em.”..."
___________________

AND for youse ANtiF-35B fwits Twisted Evil

here is the news:

http://www.airspacemag.com/military-avi ... amp;page=2

"...The F-35B has a smaller wing because weight is an overriding issue for STOVL aircraft, which during landing have to produce at least a pound of thrust for each pound they weigh. The B variant could not afford the extra pounds of a wing-fold mechanism; consequently, its wingspan could be no greater than 35 feet, the maximum width that an amphibious assault ship elevator can accommodate....”

Last edited by spazsinbad on Aug 26, 2012 - 01:50 PM; edited 1 time in total

'Hot Pit Refuelling' is the moniker:

19 November 2009: AF-1 Hot Pit Refuels

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/article.html?item_id=11

"AF-1 hot pit refuels during its second flight. In hot pit refueling, the pilot stays in the cockpit and the aircraft remains on the ground and running as it is refueled. Lockheed Martin test pilot Jeff Knowles is the pilot for the mission (which counts as one flight). The overall flight lasts 2.3 hours. This is the first time hot pit refueling is used to fly back-to-back missions with the F-35."
____________________________________

"25 October 2010: BF-3 Pulls Seven g’s
F-35B BF-3 flew through seven g’s on its fifty-eighth test flight. The flight, from NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, consisted of two sorties separated by hot pit refueling."

http://www.codeonemagazine.com/f35_arti ... item_id=63

Researchers Demonstrate Automated Aircraft Ground Refueling System Winter 2011

http://www.wpafb.af.mil/shared/media/do ... 04-012.pdf (1.2Mb)

"Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX) are developing a robotic refueling system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Successful development and testing of the system will provide a feasible alternative to manual refueling.

With modifications to this technology, the system will work on many other aircraft, including fighters, tankers, cargo aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles.

The system will reduce the number of people needed near each aircraft during hot refueling, improving safety and efficiency. A crew chief will marshal the aircraft and oversee the refueling operation, but an operator at an Operational Control Unit will run the actual refueling and may be several hundred feet away from the aircraft. Video links and data will guide the robot and its operator. In the future, the system may be adapted to allow crews to operate in a closed environment while protected from possible chemical/biological risks, without Mission-Oriented Protective Posture gear....

...As the experiment started, the vehicle drove to the mock-up of the F-35 maintenance interface panel, following a 90 degree arc on the ground. The robot used a camera and a laser range finder to determine the aircraft panel's orientation and to re-orient itself accordingly. A specially designed tool then opened the panel door. A separate arm held the door open while the robot switched to a second tool with a commercial fuel nozzle. The robot attached the fuel nozzle to the SPR adapter inside the panel. The nozzle's operating lever/shaft rotated to push the poppet valve and open the flow path. After a pause to simulate fuel flow, the system reversed the steps until the door closed and latched.

Following this successful demonstration, researchers will add additional functionality including electrical bonding, checking the fuel status lights, and ensuring software compatibility with Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS). After these upgrades the system will be prepared for field testing."

Best to read entire article with PDF page attached.

USAF Fact Sheet on Auto Refuel: http://www.wpafb.af.mil/library/factshe ... amp;page=1

U.S. Air Force Fact Sheet
AFRL/RXQ - RESEARCHERS DEMONSTRATE AUTOMATED AIRCRAFT GROUND REFUELING SYSTEM

ACCOMPLISHMENT
Researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Materials and Manufacturing Directorate (AFRL/RX) are developing a robotic refueling system for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Successful development and testing of the system will provide a feasible alternative to manual refueling. With modifications to this technology, the system will work on many other aircraft, including fighters, tankers, cargo aircraft, helicopters, and unmanned aerial vehicles. In April 2010, the AFRL/RXQ Robotics Research Team at Tyndall AFB successfully demonstrated a prototype system.

BACKGROUND
While aircraft ground refueling equipment has improved, this is still a manual process that involves personnel handling the fuel supply hose, attaching, and then detaching it. Sometimes crews perform this as a "hot-pit refueling," which is refueling while one or more of the engines are operating. Researchers at the AFRL/RXQ Airbase Technologies Division, Robotics Research Team at Tyndall Air Force Base, FL, received a request from the Air Education and Training Command and the Air Force Petroleum Agency to develop an automated system to refuel the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter while on the ground.

The Robotics Research Team began developing the Automated Aircraft Ground Refueling (AAGR) system, which will help personnel to refuel the aircraft safely, quickly, and efficiently. A fuel hose attaches the robot to a fuel hydrant. Vision and proximity sensors observe the aircraft's location and a guidance system aligns the robot with the fuel door. The robot opens the fuel door, attaches itself to the single point refueling (SPR) adapter, and begins refueling. A fuels operator will observe and confirm the robot's actions throughout the process.

The Robotics Team successfully demonstrated the AAGR prototype in April 2010. The prototype robot has a manipulator arm mounted on a low-profile, wheel-drive platform/vehicle. A 30-foot metal truss connects the vehicle to a pivot point on the ground. As the experiment started, the vehicle drove to the mock-up of the F-35 maintenance interface panel, following a 90 degree arc on the ground. The robot used a camera and a laser range finder to determine the aircraft panel's orientation and to re-orient itself accordingly. A specially designed tool then opened the panel door. A separate arm held the door open while the robot switched to a second tool with a commercial fuel nozzle. The robot attached the fuel nozzle to the SPR adapter inside the panel. The nozzle's operating lever/shaft rotated to push the poppet valve and open the flow path. After a pause to simulate fuel flow, the system reversed the steps until the door closed and latched.

Following this successful demonstration, researchers will add additional functionality including electrical bonding, checking the fuel status lights, and ensuring software compatibility with Joint Architecture for Unmanned Systems (JAUS). After these upgrades the system will be prepared for field testing.

PAYOFF
The system will reduce the number of people needed near each aircraft during hot refueling, improving safety and efficiency. A crew chief will marshal the aircraft and oversee the refueling operation, but an operator at an Operational Control Unit will run the actual refueling and may be several hundred feet away from the aircraft. Video links and data will guide the robot and its operator. In the future, the system may be adapted to allow crews to operate in a closed environment while protected from possible chemical/biological risks, without Mission-Oriented Protective Posture gear."

spazsinbad wrote:

The Skyhawk could be 'hot refuelled' via the probe on the ground (with safety precautions) and engine running I believe also. I don't know if the other USMC jets can be hot refuelled but several times I have seen mention of F-35 sorties back to back with hot refuelling taking place in between - again I don't know if engine is running.

Hot refueling is routine practice for all DoN TACAIR. Has been for a long time (decades). Hot refueling is used regularly (i.e almost every day) in F-35 flight test as well.

That 'hot refuel' question was answered earlier above for F-35 sorties and yes I'm not familiar with current USN practices and I don't claim to be except those I have researched such as 'how to deck land'.