Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveRS
The F-35 is still planning on goin into production?? I keep hearing all this BS about it.. its got all these problems... testing problems.. mechanical problems.. how all branches are supposedly going to swap out their fighters for this sole F-35... Im like what a kick in the balls with these statement.. even when im playing battlefield 3 I hate that plane.. the VTOL model has issues.. I just dont see them replacing the F-15/16/18 A-10 with this 1 plane.. unrealistic.. a superhornet crashed outside of Oceana in VA baexh into an apartment complex recently.. no one got killed thankfuly
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Yes, all three versions are being built. A.K.A. Air Force, Navy and STOVL. BAE is the builder of the 6+ foot diameter fan right behind the pilot on the STOVL version. Almost all of the problems have been resolved, but there is currently a major issue with the wing roots being under developed. Now that there are quite a few jets with lots of flight hours and have had heavy flight testing done, they are realizing that the aluminum wing roots are not strong enough and are developing cracks. Tooling has already been changed over to start producing the wing root assemblies out of titanium. This is nothing new in the world of building aircraft from the ground up. Boeing and Grumman went through it back in the day also. Lockheed says they need more money from the Gov't. While that may be partially true in some cases, IMO lockheed needs to get their head out of their butts and stop under estimating their costs. The F-35 program is nowhere close to having the problems that the F-22 program did when the planes where being built in Marietta, GA.
I have seen all versions of the F-35 doing testing and flight testing at NAS PAX. The STOVL version is awesome to watch flying low and slow over the Patuxent river and Chesapeake Bay. It is a ton more impressive than watching a Harrier. Seeing the Navy version do a cat launch from the mock aircraft carrier flight deck and tail hook arrest on the mock aircraft carrier flight deck is very surreal. If I had stayed in MD after retiring, I could have pretty much walked right into the F-35 program at NAS PAX as a maintainer. After 20 years of working on jets, I have had enough. I am tired of line maintenance no matter what the pay is. I would have no issues going back to repairing/overhauling engines only though, specifically the T-56. The T-56 is a love hate relationship, but if you can work on and troubleshoot a T-56 engine you can work on any jet engine.
Every thing I just spoke of is public record BTW.