Posted on 08/09/2011 7:54:58 PM PDT by Yo-Yo
Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Executive Vice President and F-35 program head, Tom Burbage, was in Canberra on August 9 to brief media on the latest developments with the JSF program.
During the briefing, Burbage explained that the 20-strong JSF fleet’s recent grounding was a precautionary measure following the failure of an Integrated Power Pack (IPP) - a large APU-like component which provides starting power for the main engine and doubles to provide bleed air to cool the aircraft’s systems - on one of the flight test articles at Edwards AFB, AF-4.
“The airplanes are in a stop mode right now because we had a ground incident with an IPP about a week ago where we had a valve that failed,” Burbage said. “It’s (a)…turbine engine that’s driven by fuel and combusted until it starts the main engine of the airplane, and then the main engine takes over and runs it on bleed air. There’s a valve that has to open to shift from combusted to bleed, and there was a problem with that valve.”
Burbage added that there was an “explosive event” that was controlled by the aircraft’s onboard fire bottles. “There was a flame – we don’t know the extent of the damage yet,” he said. “There is some damage in the surrounding area, parched areas.”
Burbage said he hoped some of the aircraft could return to flight as soon as next week. “We’re hoping to get clearance to go back into ground ops as early as today, and return to flight ops on the instrumented airplanes as early as next week. We have 1500 flights and a thousand hours on that piece of machinery and have never seen this failure before, so it’s good we can identify these things early.”
There are currently 20 F-35s at flight test and training bases; six F-35As are at Edwards AFB for flight science testing and maturity flights; three F-35Cs and five F-35Bs at the US Navy’s Pax River facility and nearby JB Lakehurst-Dix-McGuire; two F-35As at Eglin AFB in Florida preparing for the commencement of crew and maintainer training; and four more F-35As at Fort Worth preparing for delivery to Eglin.
That's what happens when you design on the "bleeding" edge of technology...
Just a few billion more and they will get it working. For a little while.
Taxpayers demand our product. When are lawmakers going to come down on Lockheed for screwing us continually on this project.
Lots of teething pains with this one, but has there ever been a fighter, let alone one as complex as the F-35, that didn't?
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” We have 1500 flights and a thousand hours on that piece of machinery and have never seen this failure before, so it’s good we can identify these things early.”
“
The guy talks like a typical idiot executive. All words that make no sense. Buzzword Bingo. He could “identify these things early” but brags about “1500 flights and a thousand hours”.
The F-35 is the perfect example of what happens when stupidity meets bureaucracy: they join hands and skip down the road joyfully, results be damned.
Damn sad: The F35, as a concept, could have been great.
So was superman. HA, HA, just could not resist.
I believe he was talking in the context of finding a problem with a part before they get a thousand airframes out there and then discover they have a problem.
It is good to catch a problem early in testing.
F-35: stopped at 20 airframes
LCS: stopped at four hulls
DDG-1000: stopped at three hulls
P-8: stopped at six airframes
LPD-17: stopped at six hulls
MCMs: retired early
USCG FRC: stopped at eight hulls
Perrys: sold overseas
P-3s: patched up to fly until 2020 but lose ASW capability
CVNs: one retired for a total of 10 still in use
SSN-21 Seawolf: stopped at six hulls
It's a bleak picture.
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