For now — and for the next few years — the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is the proverbial baby of the aerospace industry family.
Every first this infant aircraft design makes will be oood and ahhd over, simply by virtue of it being the baby. Even the cranky uncles (like me) will crack a smile.
And so it goes with the first lighting of the F-35s afterburner during a takeoff.
This great piece written by my old colleague (okay, ex-boss) Graham Warwick describes the moment earlier this week that the F-35s 40,000lb-thrust monster of an engine went thermonuclear.
That being said, lighting an afterburner is one of the simplest tricks of the aerospace engineering profession, dating back to the dawn of the jet age in the 1950s. With the right tools, you can even try it at home. Just spray kerosene into a blast of super-heated air and watch what happens. (Okay, maybe dont.)
This whole show over the JSF is cute for now. But, just like a baby who grows into a toddler and eventually an adolescent, the enthusiasm for some of its personality quirks will fade. Some features may become downright annoying.
How will that afterburning engine of the JSF be appreciated in 15 or 20 years, I wonder?
It is sometimes said that the JSF is the last manned fighter to be built, and that may yet prove true, although the jury is still out.
But its arguably a lock that the F-35 will be the last fighter designed without regard to the rate of specific fuel consumption.
Two trends in aerial warfare are clear: gas-guzzlers are out and engine efficiency is in. Long-range strike, the object of the air forces current high-tech fixation, demands an aircraft that hoards gas like it was liquid gold. Super-speed will still be desirable, but for the first time speed will not be the over-riding criteria if it means damaging engine efficiency.
Christian adds…
Shortly after Steves post, auditors at the Government Accountability Office released a report recommending the Pentagon revise its production schedule, reducing F-35 yearly buys.
GAO is recommending that DoD limit the annual production quantities to no more than 24 aircraft per year until each variants basic flying qualities have been demonstrated in flight testing now scheduled in the 2010 timeframe.
This comes after congressional backlash to an Air Force request for two of the still-experimental jets in the 2007 emergency wartime supplemental budget.
The Air Force wanted to buy the next-generation jets to replace an F-16 and an F-15 lost in combat overseas. But congressional watchdogs, including Sen. John McCain, argued that the planes wouldnt be ready for years, and should thus be excluded from the wartime bill.
Facing the funding denial on Capitol Hill, the Bush administration blinked, nixing the JSFs from the supplemental in amendments sent to Congress March 9. And as the estimated $623 billion program marches on, count on more budget tussles when the JSF bills come due.
(hat-tip to NC for the gouge)
This article at DID was posted just a few days ago.
India, Russia in Negotiations re: Next-Generation Fighter
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/03/india-russia-in-negotiations-re-nextgeneration-fighter/index.php
There is a strong likelihood this will be a maned aircraft ‚but I will be curious as to what its looks like.
The move to unmanned jets is referring to the fact that Jet technology (engine technology) is soon going to make it impossible for a normal man to survive. Especially since they want to fly ‘faster higher and more agile’.
Also from the desire to lessen casualties of highly trained pilots and the ability to fly longer sorties (just get up from your desk and go pee).
This is mostly a USAF desire. However, once this technology is in place, it’ll become a new arms race.
It’s a frightening thought of Nuclear Laden Jets being controlled remotely. I’d hate to see a super smart hacker-terrorist gain control of a nuke and land it safely (and possibly invisible to radar ‘stealth tech’) without anyone having a chance to stop this from happening.
There is also nothing to stop them from making a ‘simple’ robot that would just pull levers and push pedals. A sort of ‘retro fit’ unmanned air craft.
Peter–
If I’m not mistaken, since Mikoyan-Gurevich is involved, they’re probably looking for a buyer for the 1.42/1.44/Flatiron/MiG-39/whatever it’s called. It actually flew well before the F-35.
Actually, unmanned jets really aren’t a USAF desire. Remember the term “fighter mafia”? The Air Force is run by pilots — they don’t want to relegate themselves to the annals of history.
The push for UAVs comes from those outside the Air Force.
Actually there are a fair amount of people here in the Air Force, pilots included, who do want UAVs. SECAF just released a letter (some media coverage) to that effect.
The trick with unmanned jets is that, while they look good in theory, aircraft really aren’t much more durable than pilots under stress, and a remote control system leaves your entire air force vulnerable to some clever joker with a jammer. This leaves AI systems, which begs the question; who do people trust more, pilots, or programmers?
Every time people come up with a new weapon, they seem to expect it to be a panacea. Remember all the business back in the 60’s about how missiles would make dogfighting obsolete? They said the same thing about the Eagle with its ginormous radar. Missiles are still evadable to this day, and eagle drivers still get in awkward knife fights with more agile F-16’s that sneak under their radar. Stealth is going to make this game even harder for computers in the future.