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December 15, 2006

New Plane Makes Maiden Voyage: More F-35 Pics

The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter finally got off the ground today for its maiden voyage. It was scheduled to go up on Wednesday, but that flight was scrubbed. So, if you are in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area, and you grabbed some pics, let me know.

Remember to keep both hands on the keyboard as you look at these pics. They are that hot. War porn, of the softcore variety. Click on the pics for super-high res versions. And make sure to scroll to the end for a special guest photo. The first pic is from Lockheed Martin as part of their press release.

This second pic is from the roof of Accuconference, and was taken by a guy there who droppedthe link in the comments of a previous post. He has a whole series of pics of the F-35 over Ft. Worth.

Here's a photog pic from the AP, (no high res, but nice).

Another AP photo

And here is the Reuters photo, taken by Adnan Hajj.

Posted by: Rusty at 04:05 PM | Comments (16) | Add Comment
Post contains 177 words, total size 2 kb.

1 I was a holder of LMT stock when they won this contract.
I bet on Lockheed. I believed they would use some of the F22 technology and they did.
Great plane, great replacement for the F16.
----The JSF engines will require changeout for service
only every 800 to 1,000 hours, or every three or four
years, instead of at least once a year. They will need
fewer maintainers and fewer spares on deployments.---

UAV will be Boeing forte. God bless the USA

Posted by: NortonPete at December 15, 2006 05:21 PM (fVuwW)

2 Where is the IFR probe? I forgot, it must be the USAF variant.

Posted by: MCPO Airdale at December 15, 2006 05:59 PM (3nKvy)

3 That is one beautiful aircraft.

Posted by: Andy at December 15, 2006 06:42 PM (WJif6)

4 That Reuters photo is the best of the group. It really illustrates the F-35's ability to attack ambulances and garbage dumps.

Posted by: Bryan at December 15, 2006 07:17 PM (zL22D)

5 Is the JSF the VSTOL plane?

Posted by: SeeMonk at December 15, 2006 07:20 PM (n4VvM)

6 SeeMonk - there is a VSTOL version. And a "real" version with an IFR probe!

Posted by: MCPO Airdale at December 15, 2006 07:35 PM (3nKvy)

7 meanwhile it looks like the british left is coalescing to block new trident subs.
news and analsysi and commentary here:
http://astuteblogger.blogspot.com/2006/12/
political-battle-for-new-trident-subs.html

Posted by: reliapundit at December 15, 2006 08:42 PM (3wQbg)

LOL! That last photo gave me the best laugh I've had all day! Outstanding!

Posted by: Jack's Smirking Revenge at December 15, 2006 08:50 PM (N7QLC)

9 Rusty, if you're still having the blues about grading exams. Have no fear, the handy dandy autograder is available.

Posted by: lawhawk at December 15, 2006 08:53 PM (P5I2Q)

10 Witnessed this flight live today during the employee "all hands meet" at the Pratt hanger East Hartford, CT.
What we witnessed today is an aircraft power plant that is known via DOD as the Conventional Take-Off & Landing (CTOL) Version. Full use of a land located flight deck. Many hours were spent managing the assembly operation and the evolving "work in process" system this CTOL version experienced. I mention manage and evolving with skepticism only because of the ever increasing reliability for a corporation and management to depend heavily on a product produced and engineered by temporary,contract employees who can only gain personal satisfaction rather than a sense of corporate reward or belonging to this program. Some of this work is actually archived as far as India and Pueto Rico which now puts a new meaning on a product that you thought was made by true employee commitment across all partnerships. Thus the company Moto "The eagle is everywhere" but Pratt engines can use focus on quality control beyond it's low cost borders which creates wildfires a well seasoned auditor has to try to control.
Evolving engineering data requirements are still changing as standard work issues are still not carved in stone. Quality issues along the way ? Lets just say they were lost in the translation of the new global,economic, communication arena supporting a developing engine patterned for similar production techniques.

Posted by: PrattTeam at December 15, 2006 09:45 PM (A2abf)

11 Happy to see an Australian flag among others on this beauty. then again, where is an Israeli flag? Aren't they participating in the program just as well? Or it is another submission to Arab sensitivity???

Posted by: Terry Crane at December 16, 2006 02:40 AM (sJeXB)

12 PBS (Nova?) had a special on the contract battle between Lockheed and Boeing. I was rooting for Lockheed from the start. The Boeing craft just didn't look right. As R. Buckminster Fuller said:

"When I am working on a problem I never think about beauty. I only think about how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong."

But, thanks to the "Reuters News Accuracy Standard", even I can tell that last photo is real and the other are fake.

Posted by: GPE at December 16, 2006 09:32 AM (SGI5k)

13 About some of the questions above. On the plane you see a probe sticking out front that is a highly calibrated flight test device, commonly referred to as the 'alpha-beta' probe. It is positioned well forward of the aircraft to gather 'truth' angle-of-attack and yaw data as well as air pressure data for airspeed/altimeter, etc. The F-35, like every low observable aircraft (after the F-117) uses conformal air data ports to gather data that is collected via 'pitot tubes' etc, on "traditional" designs. The data from the Alpha-Beta probe is used to calibrate the 'conformal' system and validate the design of same. From the sound of the first reports, the Alph-Beta probe probably proved its purpose right out of the box, although some data 'divergence' reported could have come from comparison of data with one or both of the chase aircraft.

Re: The Israel question. There are international partners AND customers with this plane (a first!). Israel and others are still deciding (see: http://www.canadafreepress.com/2006/military121406.htm) what they want to be.

Posted by: SMSgtMac at December 16, 2006 03:27 PM (g1BT7)

14 How soon will we have our T-65 X-Wing fighters?

Posted by: sandpiper at December 16, 2006 03:55 PM (S97cI)

15 Sweet.

But why are all the flags visible in the first pic reversed?

Posted by: hiraethin at December 16, 2006 06:41 PM (xysqf)

16 It's in the U.S flag code.

Flags on a vehicle should be portrayed as if they are blown back by forward motion. Thus they will be reversed on the starboard side.

Posted by: Rob at December 16, 2006 11:31 PM (RIiWd)

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December 15, 2006

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