Posted on 03/17/2012 7:18:22 PM PDT by lbryce
Maybe it's the sleek lines and the state-of-the-art design, or maybe it's the almost underdog status the $382 billion program has adopted since it began testing, either way new pictures of the F-35's baby steps keep popping up online.
These were taken March 1, and posted to the Aviationist by David Cenciotti. They show the STOVL (Short Take Off Vertical Landing) model with its weapon bays open and a couple of dummy 2,000 pound Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) smart bombs.
One more picture left to view.due to excerpt rule
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
yup... i didn't catch that
Twice as many latches, twice as many hinges, twice as many doors etc. as would be practical... more to go wrong and more to maintain.
And half as many engines as it should have.
thats the mumbai door.
All fine airframes, for sure. I’m a big fan of the B-25 ever since I read about them (as a kid) being flown off aircraft carriers. I know that also has to do with the men flying them at the time but day-em... that’s one helluva feat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqvZ0gH-r44
It had actual footage of Doolittle's B-25s taking off from "Shangri-La"...
Its pretty, but somehow not as fearsome looking as an F4F Phantom with fully exposed armament on its belly and wings. But then again, the old school way of dropping bombs is long gone. You don’t need to carry 18,000 pounds of weapons when you can now decimate the target with just a couple of precise hits.
Beautiful pics, thanks.
F-22 is the baddest-ass fighter jet to ever exist, and copycat Sukhoi can go screw itself (and pray it never has to actually face an F-22).
Amen.
My 91 yr old dad was in a 7th Army AAA battery during WWII from North Africa on through Germany’s surrender. He’s mentioned that as they were fighting their way across France they would often see the entire sky filled with what looked like thousands of bombers, headed to their targets in Germany. A sight like that will never be seen again.
And you’re right, the sound of those WWII engines is something special. There’s a few vintage planes flying out of an airport near me in SoCal and I love to hear them pass overhead.
At two hundred million per copy it should crap little gold bricks when the doors are opened. What a waste.
Not sure about sixty seconds but here’s one about thirty seconds ;-)
http://www.amazon.com/Thirty-Seconds-Tokyo-Spencer-Tracy/dp/B000NTPG6Q
Exactly and only $207m each for the ones bought in 2012.
Wouldn't it be better to destroy all of a target rather than just 10%?
A sight like that will never be seen again.
—
Mainly because this country would not stand for the 80,000 dead airmen today.
The Chinese PLA and the Russian engineeers just love this sort of photographic info -
While these are beautiful and “impressive” pictures, the sad truth is that the F-35 is going to go down in history as one of the worst, over-hyped military aircraft boondoggles ever.
It will be another F-111 type failure, in that the politically-motivated insistence on demanding that one aircraft perform too many different roles, for too many different service constituencies will result in it not performing any of them to the highest levels necessary to maintain our superiority.
In combat, one size does not fit all, and it never will.
To be clear, fly-away cost for the jet alone is about 150Mil (http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110211-038.pdf, pg 57 of 560). If you add all weapons systems and infrastructure to go along with it, then it runs about 192M.
If they kept to the original number they envisioned, the cost-per-unit would be a heck of a lot lower. . .I’m not a fan of the F-35, as I think the F-22 is by far the best. The F-22 internal weapons load equals that of the F-35. . .in order for the F-35 to carry more than the F-22 it must carry external ordinance, something that the F-22 can’t do. And if the F-35 does carry external weapons, this would remove any LO capability of the jet. LM over-sold the concept. Should have stayed with the full run of F-22 and re-vamped F-15E. F-22 to kick in the door and the F-15E’s to take iron downtown.
Can you tell me where you got that number?
According to USAF docs, the cost is about 150M per jet (for USAF versions). For the entire support systems that go along with it, and weapons, the total cost per unit is about 192M (http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110211-038.pdf, pg 57 of 560).
I am not that familiar with USMC/Navy budget docs, so a link would be good.
Thanks.
You said: “They radiate competence...you see them and just know that they are the finest craftsmanship in the world.”
Damn straight. Those were the days when “close enough for government work” was standard of pride.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.