F-35C completes carrier tests aboard the Ike17 Oct 2015 Lance Bacon"...The multifaceted two-week flight test was used to develop launch and recovery bulletins. The former focused on
55,000 and 60,000-pound catapult shots at military, the catapult shot with standard jet thrust, and maximum power....
...Development of recovery bulletins saw multiple wind scenarios —
some as high as 40 knots over deck [with a crosswind component within limits sometimes as reported by others]. Cmdr. Christian “Wilson” Sewell, the flight test director, lauded "Delta flight path," in which flight controls capture the glide slope once the pilot has a center ball on their flight deck approach. The pilot then adjusts with minor tweaks via the stick.
“Easy,” Sewell said. “We put it on the deck exactly where we want just about every time.”
Sewell, who started off in F/A-18 Hornets, has been flying 16 years. He has roughly 40 shots and traps in the JSF, and another 230 in the Hornet....
...Yellow shirts said the JSF taxis and maneuvers well on the flight deck. Sailors found it to be similar to the F/A-18 Super Hornet — it uses the same repeatable release holdback bar, the Catapult Capacity Selector Valve is set the same, and suspend procedures are the same.
The one difference is location of the intakes.
"Our hold back operators and topside safety petty officers have to approach the aircraft similar to the way they would approach a EA-6B Prowler or A-6 Intruder,” said Lt. Cmdr. Karl Murray, V-2 division officer and senior catapult and arresting gear officer, a.k.a. "Top Cat."
"The intakes are closer to the nose launch bar, and some of these sailors aren’t used to seeing that."...
...“We are a single engine, but we are a single huge engine,” Sewell said. “A
10,000-pound engine presents some unique logistical considerations: how to get it aboard the ship, how to unpack it and move it around, where can maintenance be done, etc.”
The team did not do an engine swap, but simulated a swap of the power module, which is the largest component. The team also tested the integrated power package that provides electrical power to start the engine. While such gear is nothing new,
the exhaust in this IPP points upward. The team ran the IPP for 20 minutes to ensure the hangar bay ceiling didn’t get too hot ....
...Final carrier tests are scheduled for late summer of 2016. This will include external weapons and the
full joint precision aircraft landing system."
Source: http://www.navytimes.com/story/military ... /74015774/ 
17 Oct 2015, 01:11
