(X-32, one AMRAAM and one air-to-ground weapon shape per bay.
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The above is a photo of the Boeing X-32 during the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) competition which ended in 2001 with the Lockheed Martin X-35 picked as a winner by the U.S. DOD.
The photo is important because of the two competing aircraft, only the Boeing X-32 had weapons bays. The X-35 was given a pass by the U.S. DOD with the assumption of weapons bay risk-reduction and knowledge being proven by LM because of the F-22.
I wonder who gave them that idea?
During the competition, the X-32 had to take stuff off the aircraft to demonstrate vertical landing. "Holes are heavy" stated a Lockheed Martin F-35 test pilot some years ago. Adding weapons bays to a design has an affect on the weight assumptions (doors, appliance compromise, etc.). The LM F-35 had less of a weight penalty and demonstrated vertical landing without having to take things off the aircraft.
Note that because of the JSF STOVL design requirement and the kind of STOVL appliances used by the F-35, weapons bays would be nothing like that of the F-22.
(F-35 weapons bays)
It would be unlikely you could have the main weapons bay of an F-22 on the F-35 with the presence of a lift-fan.
(F-22 weapons bays)
Now, we have an admission from one of the key LM F-35 program persons, that weight assumptions for the F-35 were wrong.
F-35 weight risk was predicted by independent experts years ago.
The designs of all three JSF variants are presenting with critical single points of failure while even the most basic elements of aircraft design (e.g. weight, volume, aerodynamics, structures, thermal management, electrical power, etc.) will almost certainly end up in what Engineers call "Coffin Corner".
4 comments:
The facts are clear, today.
None of the JSF aircraft variants are coming within a bull's roar of their bare minimum acceptable Threshold Specifications, let alone the Target Objective Specifications of the JORD; the designs are riddled with single points of failure; while all the critical elements of aircraft and aircraft systems design have been painted into what Engineers call "coffin corner".
Folks like Solomon, Abe Gubler, Aussie Digger and Gary Faiirlie of the DMO had advance notice of this situation, as did John Harvey and Angus Houston et al but all were too busy drinking the Kool Aid and focusing on their vested self interests rather than the national interest.
All have been pawns to the LM bullshit game called the JSF Program.
I like the valuable information you provide in your articles.
It is not too late to truncate the F-35 program and move to something different, but it is not happening and this over a 13 year time span, different countries, different administrations, different Presidents, no matter if Republican or Democrat. Why is this? Mass hypnosis? I feel I am in Invasion of the Body Snatchers.
Nicely put.
And I'm with superraptor-- if the USMC feels it necessary to continue, the 35B is all theirs (not like it was going to be affordable anyway). For the AF and USN, assuming they're serious about the pivot-to-the-pacific, the F-35 is the wrong platform at any price and level of workingness...
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