Also read that they managed to produce 142 F-35's in 2021 which was a couple of units above their goal.
F-35 Joint Strike Fighter News, Videos and pics Thread
- Thread starter Jeff Head
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Also read that they managed to produce 142 F-35's in 2021 which was a couple of units above their goal.
Don't know if they talk about airframes or airframes with engines. Lots of f-35 are still waiting for their engines... enough that they prefer to mothball low capabilities block 1 and 2 that need new engines to make engines available for new production aircraft.
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The A/B/C versions has different engines, with diferent components, so there is limited flexibility to rearange them.
Considering the lead time of the engined most at least likelly year long.
Considering the lead time of the engined most at least likelly year long.
South Korea’s whole fleet of F-35 fighters has been grounded as its military investigates the cause of a landing gear glitch that forced a pilot to perform a risky crash-landing in the latest failure to plague the US-made craft.
An ill-fated training flight earlier this week has prompted a probe into what may have caused the malfunction, which affected a number of systems in addition to the plane’s landing gear, South Korean defense officials said on Wednesday.
“With the investigation underway, the entire [F-35] fleet is suspended from flying,” one official told AFP.
During a hearing on the incident on Wednesday, the vice chief of staff for the South Korean Air Force, Shin Ok-chul, said the F-35A was at low altitude near a base in the west of the country when its pilot heard “bangs” coming from somewhere on the jet, leading him to check the plane’s systems.
“All systems had stopped working except flight controls and the engine,” Shin continued, noting that the pilot chose to perform an emergency belly landing – in which a plane skids on its underside to land safely during a malfunction – rather than eject. Reportedly making the first belly landing ever attempted in an F-35, the airman fortunately emerged unscathed.
Ahead of the death-defying maneuver, special foam was quickly applied to the air base’s runway in order to stop the plane from exploding due to the friction and sparks created as it scraped the tarmac at high speeds.
While Washington and US-based arms dealer Lockheed Martin have touted the F-35 as one of the most advanced fighter jets ever developed, the project has been a costly one for US taxpayers, who’ve footed the bill for a long series of delays, malfunctions and cost overruns since the craft made its first official flight in 2006. Nonetheless, a number of American allies have lined up to buy the plane, with Seoul making its first order for 40 of the craft in 2014, receiving an initial shipment of around a dozen in 2019. It has since , hoping to obtain scores of additional F-35s for its air force and navy.
Tuesday’s dramatic belly landing and fleet-wide grounding in South Korea comes after another F-35 operated by the UK crashed into the Mediterranean Sea last November as it attempted takeoff from a British aircraft carrier, though its pilot was able to safely eject.
More j-35 will be grounded than flying at this rate... didn't see if the airframe is repairable.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Oh how the critics love to add cheap drama. To date it’s only been 9 major incidents.
4 USAF
2USMC
1 British
1 Japanese
And now 1 RoK
For a program going on 20 years with over 700 units delivered and 43000 flight hours that’s a remarkable safety record.
Given that the aircraft didn’t “explode” probably wouldn’t have either it will likely be repaired as by this point a number of F22 have belly landed and returned to service after repairs.
The majority of that “Long series of Malfunctions” are in software code changes and program management.
The investigation will look at what happened and seek correction.
4 USAF
2USMC
1 British
1 Japanese
And now 1 RoK
For a program going on 20 years with over 700 units delivered and 43000 flight hours that’s a remarkable safety record.
Given that the aircraft didn’t “explode” probably wouldn’t have either it will likely be repaired as by this point a number of F22 have belly landed and returned to service after repairs.
The majority of that “Long series of Malfunctions” are in software code changes and program management.
The investigation will look at what happened and seek correction.
F-35 is probably the safest single engine fighter in service.
It's interesting to see the number of flying hours booked to know the number of mishaps per flying hours. We have the stat of fiscal year 2019.
Presently with the crash booked before 2019, the prevision for F-35 is 3,15 class A per 100000hrs and 4,11 class B per 100000hrs . We got four more crashes in the past 2 years with not a lot of flying hours because of grounding because of crashes, grounding because of lacks of engines... we will se if the curve stay at their prevision.
F-35 is way more costly so a lot of class b become class a, and the US augmented the cost treshold for class B to be sure that the statistics stay good.
In comparison, F-16 is at 3,3 for class a and at 0,98 for class b mishaps per 100 000hrs.
New paint scheme on the F-35.
TerraN_EmpirE
Tyrant King
Looks like an artist rendered not real. Note lack of roundels. It has numbers but no stars or Navy markings despite clearly having the hinges for the wings.New paint scheme on the F-35.