Video shows the F-35 Lightning II in flight and in the assembly line at Lockheed Martin.
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God… That’s sexy as hell.
Whay are we still building manned fighters? Couldn’t this airplane be more smaller and manuverable as a drone? Don’t have to worry about the pilot blacking out from too many gees.
What is this? A propaganda film? Nice plane, this is what is at the trailing edge of what is…. well what we “think” is possible. Well I guess I wouldn’t mind having one.
This is indeed a nice propaganda film from Lockheed Martin. The main problem with the JSF program is that it’s behind schedule by quite a few years, and this has impacted most customers. The Navy and Marines are having serious problems as the F/A-18C & Ds are reaching end of life.
#2
Early in the JSF program Lockheed actually told the government they could make it unmanned if they were willing to wait an additional 5 years or so for development. They obviously opted to stick with the manned version.
Its still possible that they’ll produce unmanned drone versions later on.
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The F-35 is an awesome jet. It takes a lot of the tech that went into the F-22 and puts it into a much more affordable and useful strike fighter platform.
# 4
Dunno who told you that. The aircraft is currently slightly ahead of schedule. There were some issues with weight and the budget back in 2004, but those have long since been fixed.
The first aircraft will start rolling out to the military in 2011. The F-16 and F-18 will hold up fine until then. We’ve really needed a replacement for the Harrier for over a decade though…
Yeah, for all those “end-of-life” pundits…
The B-52 is still in active role, the Harrier is a late 60’s plane whose development began in 1957…some countries still fly A-4 skyhawks…
the a-1 skyraider flew almost from WWII to the eighties…
you’ll fly what you have to fly…
A few years ago PBS had a fantastic episode of Nova that showed the JSF competition between Boeing’s X-32 and the Lockheed X-35 that eventually won.
Cool Video.
Cool and expensive plane too. Also a nice dutch flag on it, we opted for 85 of these beasts.
I still hope my country will change their mind and go for the Saab Gripen NG. ( almost the same specs, but cheaper )
#9
The Gripen is a good plane and has certain features that might make it better suited to the Netherlands. The F-35 was initially the cheaper option, but Saab made a counteroffer earlier this year.
The Gripen is lighter and faster(based on what’s been publically released about the F-35, anyway), the F-35 has greater payload capacity/ground attack capability, far better avionics, and longer range (depending on the configuration).
Most importantly, the F-35 is much more survivable. Head to head the F-35 would destroy the Gripen with something like 10-1 odds. Whether or not that kind of survivability is necessary to the Netherlands is debatable. Europe seems pretty stable for the time being, it doesn’t look like France/Germany/Russia will be getting uppity any time soon.
#11
Yep, maybe USA might need them to defend itself of Alaska or Texas, on the event they’ll pursue what they have in mind an secede…
(just kiddin’ keep your flames down…)
#11 – Somebody_Else – Head to head the F-35 would destroy the Gripen with something like 10-1 odds.
How far up your ass did you grab that “fact”?
#13
Its just simple statistics. The Gripen is a generation 4.5 fighter akin to the F-16. The F-35 is a fifth generation stealth fighter with better avionics. Search the interwebs and read more yourself, the general opinion of the armchair strategists and the official opinions of various governments is that the F-35 is a far more capable aircraft.
In a theoretical close up dogfight the Gripen might have some advantages, but in a real world situation it probably would never see the F-35 coming in the first place.
The Dassault Rafale is a closer match to the F-35 in terms of capability and survivability (although personally I think the F-35 still comes out on top). The Gripen is a good low cost alternative for countries that don’t have infinitely deep pockets.
Give me an SU-27 or an SU-35 anyday… Simple and leathal, in the hands of a good pilot. Standoff weapons are not a good measure of an aircraft, but of the weapons system. But then again, when was the last time a Fighter Pilot actually got into a Fight?. Vietnam? The un-manned aircraft like the Predator has proven the technology is available. The F-35 is great plane, that cannot be disputed, but so are many others. F22? The F-35 is Similar in Size to the F-16, we will see this plane around a long time. Like the F16. Many Variants as well. But I still Like the Sukoi, who wouldnt? Cy-35
I love watching a video about a killing machine with catchy pop music in the background.
It’s a plane.
It flies.
It can do loops.
It can stop and land vertically on a ship.
Whoop-de-do.
At this point it is a matter of “my toy is nicer than your toy”, adding very little to the reality of the battlefield, where tactics, electronic intelligence and most importantly the capabilities of the individual munitions matter much much more than the launching platform itself.
#11 Thanks for the extra info.
#16 I agree; http://tinyurl.com/vanhalendreams