Forum: General F-35 Forum

I do agree with you Corsair, and I think that is exactly what General Moseley was thinking.....just doesn't have that satisfying punch like "Raptor" or "Nighthawk" though.

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The name is OK. It fits, especially considering Lockheed's history and the British Lightning. Besides, not everyone was going to be happy with whatever name they called. So I say let's get behind and support the F-35 Lightning II.

Well, love it or hate it "Lightning II" is the official nickname for the F-35 from now on. Sorry for the late posting of the news article, but this nasty problem called "Work" got in the way until now Wink

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I just can't wait to see the P-38 and F-35 flying together in a Heritage Flight at an airshow sometime in the future Smile

. Come to think of it, there are a few of the English Electric Lightnings in private hands - wouldn't it be great to see one brought to the U.S. for airshows flying along with the P-38 and the F-35? With Lockheed having built the P-38 and the F-35 and English Electric (now BAE Systems) having built the British Lightning and having such a big part in the F-35, I can see the promo poster now with the three aircraft flying formation and a caption reading something like "Lightning - it doesn't strike just twice." Very Happy

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I guess you guys are probably waiting for a link to the article somewhere in this story and you're not to be disappointed - just click here.

drummertr wrote:

I have a feeling its going to be similar to the B-2 situation. I don't hear anyone calling it the "Spirit". It just always called the, "B-2".

B-2A = BEAK. Wink

Maybe the F-35 will be "zap"?

No one ever calls an F-4 the "Phantom II", just "Phantom".

Nice name, "Lightning"...now, it just has to move quickly. Wink

Seriously though, the poster above got it wrong. The P-38 bombed and fought in the air, just like the 35 is designed to do, so they aren't committing some cardinal sin by naming it after a previous plane.

For the haters, use your Foxtrottin' head for a sec. What would you have rather had the plane called? Piasa? YGBFSM! It sounds like a Foxtrottin' Italian sports car. I wanna find the lame-@$$ that suggested Piasa and beat him 'til he can't walk! It was definitely some bl*wjob REMF, "I know the pointy end goes forward" type who thought of Piasa. Mad

Lightning II...I like it. It IS something threatening (at least from this Floridian's point of view, it is).

With as many electronics as are on the F-35, Lightning makes sense. I mean so many electronics. Too bad you can't detect magnetic fields when they're about 30,000 feet away (they get overridden by the earth's magnetic field and drop off by a power of three (if I remember what my boss said correctly).

I got this crazy feeling that no matter what its still going to be known as the JSF.

The USAF tried to get folks to stop calling the AIM-120 the "AMRAAM" because eventually it would no longer be "advanced"...you can see how well that worked. Of course, had they actually given it a name like Sparrow or Sidewinder it might have helped...

From what I understand the P-38 was a great dog fighter but not a good bomber. Many of our WWII aces were using a P-38's. F-35 will be very multirole much like the F-18 so I for see it doing a lot of bombing with the ability to dog fight if needed. The LO equipment adds a lot of weight so we will have to see how it does in the manueverability category.

cchief16, I also think the name "JSF" is going to stick more so than "Lighting".

Jeff wrote:

Well, love it or hate it "Lightning II" is the official nickname for the F-35 from now on. Sorry for the late posting of the news article, but this nasty problem called "Work" got in the way until now Wink

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I just can't wait to see the P-38 and F-35 flying together in a Heritage Flight at an airshow sometime in the future Smile

. Come to think of it, there are a few of the English Electric Lightnings in private hands - wouldn't it be great to see one brought to the U.S. for airshows flying along with the P-38 and the F-35? With Lockheed having built the P-38 and the F-35 and English Electric (now BAE Systems) having built the British Lightning and having such a big part in the F-35, I can see the promo poster now with the three aircraft flying formation and a caption reading something like "Lightning - it doesn't strike just twice." Very Happy

!

I guess you guys are probably waiting for a link to the article somewhere in this story and you're not to be disappointed - just click here.

There are 3 or 4 (can't remember) flying EE Lightnings in Cape Town, South Africa. There in total about 5 near-airworthy examples in the UK just that the CAA won't let them fly grrr.

Although the crux of my message... there is an airworthy EE Lightning in the US which I believe is going to start flying within the next 3 years.

Andy

"Lightning II"... Confused

Ohh!! I didn't really like the name .Like I didn't like the name :Spiderman 2" Laughing

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Remember the F-16 was named as "Fighting Falcon"... it was a nice name but it took 3 seconds to pronounce it. No one really calls it by that name and I hope same happens with JSF IMO.

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I wanna find the lame-@$$ that suggested Piasa and beat him 'til he can't walk! It was definitely some bl*wjob REMF, "I know the pointy end goes forward" type who thought of Piasa.

What the H3ll?! Piasa? I'll take Lightning II over Piasa any day. Good point TC. But honestly...I didn't mind JSF. I liked it. It could be alot worse(Piasa).
HAHAHAHA LMAO

boff180 wrote:

There are 3 or 4 (can't remember) flying EE Lightnings in Cape Town, South Africa. There in total about 5 near-airworthy examples in the UK just that the CAA won't let them fly grrr.

Although the crux of my message... there is an airworthy EE Lightning in the US which I believe is going to start flying within the next 3 years.

Thanks for posting that! Here's hoping we get to see all three together sometime!

Someone needs to go over to Britain and "educate" the CAA - they won't let a former RAF "Growler" bomber fly over there due to its experimental registration status here in the States. Go figure Mad

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Thanks again for posting that, Andy Smile

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They really really don't like ex-military jets on the civil-register. Especially after a spate of crashes in 2000.

And they have one very big rule... if it has an afterburner... it don't fly! Which is a shame, they have recently cleared a Buccaneer for flight with HHA... the next aircraft should be the Vulcan (if it gets enough money). Hopefully HHA will get clearence for their other gem... an Su-22 that is being kept airworthy... but it has an afterburner Sad

Andy

Forum: General F-35 Forum

US Air Force names F-35 Lightning II