Posted on 12/09/2014 10:47:29 AM PST by Idaho_Cowboy
After a year of several fleet-wide groundings for the F-35, the latest problem to plague the fifth-generation fighter is forcing the U.S. Air Force to revamp an entirely separate fleet to support the militarys most expensive plane yet.
The F-35 can only fly on jet fuel under a certain temperature due to a range of heating issues attributed to the F-35B variants short takeoff and vertical landing engine. According to the USAF, the dark-green trucks that carry that fuel absorb too much heat from the sun to keep the planes in the sky.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Avionics do have to be kept cool. On the ground in warm climates that’s what you have Huffers, and APU’s (Aux Power Units) for, to keep cool air flowing until you get the engine up to provide bleed air for cooling. You get the cool bleed air from the intake side of the engine before it gets to the combustion chamber. This report still sounds like BS. Now if someone familiar with the design says that they designed it to use the fuel as a coolant and eliminated bleed air to increase performance, then I would say they did not think that through.
Interesting.
F35 JSF Stealth or How the West was Lost
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pteMgYPm1xM
The F-35 is a Lemon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxDSiwqM2nw
They have to be kidding us! (posted with full sarcasm)
Here’s another Youtube link:
1/6 F-35 JOINT STRIKE FIGHTER IS A LEMON
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQB4W8C0rZI
Too expensive to fail.
Why do all the vulnerabilities of our military hardware have to become public knowledge? This information should be classified. Oh, I forgot.. This administration seeks to undermine America’s military might and this is just another example of that. The F-35 should be canceled!
Funny this. I remember when they were all painted dark green from airfield equipment yellow.
Corporate welfare at it’s finest.
“A Camel is a horse designed by committee.”
That must work great in the middle east.
"Ceterum censeo 0bama esse delendam."
Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)
So I guess they will have to repaint the fuel trucks reflective white? I guess if we limit F-35s to artic operations, that won’t be too much of a problem.
Use the camouflage green paint developed decades ago to prevent missile heads from over heating.
Use NASA developed insulating paint additive.
USAF should read Free Republic more often.
Using the fuel for additional coolant is one of those ideas that sounds really cool and innovative, until you think about it for a minute.
That is how a lot of automotive injection systems work.
If the pump in the fuel tank starts to lose pressure there is not enough to blow the bubbles back into the tank and you have vapor lock.
The bubbles have to be blown through the regulator.
Well, the F-35B is the STOL or VTOL (on its best day stripped bare) version of this turd built for the USMC.
The forward deployment plan, similar to that of the to be retired Harrier, would usually fuel from fuel bladders? Aren’t these usually BLACK hypalon rubber? Don’t the USMC usually like to try to remain less visible being forward deployed?
Guess all that is out.
People have had whole careers sucking on the money tit of this POS airplane.
Methinks the F-35 was a lot like the Aardvark (F-111) which tried to be all things to all services, which resulted in it being not that great at any specific mission.
Arthur Clarke had a great short story along these lines which may point to our future, should we not be careful: It’s titled Superiority (available in the collection: The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke).
If only!!!
Camels are exceptionally “designed” creatures, but maybe Pininfarini should have been consulted on the aesthetics?
Obviously we need Stealth capable Next Generation Fuel Trucks... or how about just ordering up some F-15 Silent Eagles???
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