Posted on 03/15/2013 10:53:34 AM PDT by EnjoyingLife
David Nelson, Lockheed Martin F-35 chief test pilot, flew AF-4 during High Angle of Attack testing December 5, 2012, over Edwards Air Force Base, California. This was the first intentional departure of the F-35A. Via http://www.af.mil/photos/media_view.asp?id=820146 (1960 x 2744 pixels)
The Photographer
Tom Reynolds / Lockheed Martin
Happy to see this was before the sequester.
Weren’t there a few threads here recently about the F-35 being software limited to sub 6G maneuvers?
You’ll also see them software limited to geographic zones, like DVD players.
Other than that, fatso F35 doesn’t have an envelope. More like a bag.
First time they intentionally did this maneuver according to the link. hmmmm
Heh. That anyone caught on camera. Who ya kiddin’?
Either one cook, one recipe or maybe a few cooks and one recipe, but definitely done in that old school kitchen Kelly and the boys used back in the day, when their stuff was the best in the world.
But...when they include a bunch of people on staff who can't cook, all following different recipes, including some from those who hate the people who eat here, and then have to heat it up in the political Easy Bake oven they're stuck with, set on either "Crock pot" or "Toaster oven", it's amazing these things turn out as good as they do.
The core recipes they started with must be fairly decent, though, since eventually the field chefs and other devotees to fine dining get them right. They stay on the menu for decades and people, sometimes one generation to the next, love them.
Unfortunately, and obviously, it's always a bad time to try new recipes with that cooking staff, in that kitchen, as the F-35 aficionados and other connoisseurs are finding out.
More text and some video:
https://f35.com/the-f-35/f-35-program-timeline/2012accomplishments.aspx#aoa
Aircraft test flights are carefully planned and rigidly followed. I seriously doubt they departed from the flight plan significantly.
Its astounding that this far into the program they are only now getting to this phase.
I’m not. People keep thinking of the F-35 as a fighter; a stealthy F-16. It isn’t any such thing, is closer to a stealthy A-7. But the “A” suffix is very out of vogue these days.
Look at all that CO2! The planet will now melt. /s
Looks a lot better than the A-7 though. Overall way way too expensive which is why the AF is going to drones for many of it’s missions now days. Much cheaper and does the same job so why not?
Actually, a drone has the potential to be a superior aircraft simply because there is no worry about killing the pilot with G forces. I'd start with the X-29 idea.
That said, a piloted aircraft is less likely to fire on American citizens.
Unless a drone plane can “think” on its own, it will have to be flown virtually in real-time. An electrical engineer told me that this would be impossible to do at high speeds with encrypting and decrpyting of the signal, so the signal would have to be unprotected. Anyone know anything about this?
If the signal is spread-spectrum (frequency hopping every few milliseconds) according to a preset sequence of frequencies coordinated between the operator and the drone, the signal could be real-time and virtually unbreakable without the key to the pattern, which could be randomly generated at launch and shared between operator and drone by an encrypted signal.
You wouldn't want the operator on another continent, as the satellite delay would be too long.
Thank you. So how close do you have to be?
Don’t know exactly. My guess is that the curvature of the earth and the altitude of the control center(s they could be redundant) would be the limit.
Wow. The Flying Edsel.
The flight testing regime is carefully thought out and scripted.
HST, I’d wager that this is not the first time; they admit that it is the first INTENTIONAL departure, but probably not the first departure.
I don’t believe you for a minute SG...when did a tailhooker follow a script? :)
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