On Jan. 20, 2012, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta took the F-35B STOVL variant off the probation imposed by former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, lifting the cloud that hung over the STOVL fighter’s future. This week Lockheed Martin released videos of the F-35A’s first night flight, and the 2011 flight test compilation shown here. At year end the number of flights and test points both exceeded the 2011 goals, but there remain significant concurrency challenges to the program due to issues discovered in flight testing, with more expected to arise as the more challenging test points are flown. Nevertheless, 2011 ended on an up note for the JSF program.
Defense Media Network
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jganzerla
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Chuck Oldham (Editor)
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David Chester
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Chuck Oldham (Editor)
4:15 PM January 26, 2012
Is this video F-35 Lightning II in 2011 available for use to an in house sales and marketing conference we are having next week? It needs to be high res.
8:53 PM January 26, 2012
The video is owned by Lockheed Martin and released to the press, but use outside the media would be their decision to make.
9:20 AM January 29, 2012
Why bother to take-off and land horizontzlly when this vehicle can perform these operations without needing any horizontal runway?
6:46 PM January 29, 2012
A horizontal take-off run increases the amount of useful load the aircraft can carry, as does a short rather than a vertical landing with respect to the load the aircraft can bring back to the ship]. Aboard ship, that load on take-off increases even more if you have a “ski-jump” installed on the bow of the ship, which helps the aircraft more than just a straight deck.