Britain's new F-35s arrive in UK as US.gov auditor sounds reliability warning klaxon Britain's first permanently based F-35B fighter jets have arrived at RAF Marham in Norfolk – as a US auditor warns that the aircraft won't be deemed "mature" until the year 2021. Four of the brand new supersonic stealth aircraft arrived at RAF Marham in Norfolk yesterday evening, having crossed the Atlantic nearly nine hours …
The Lightnings, as the F-35B will be known in British service, were accompanied on their flight by three RAF Airbus A330 tankers – one at the US end, with two more near the eastern North Atlantic – and an A400M Atlas transport aeroplane providing air-sea rescue cover.
An all-Airbus support team to get the planes over the pond - not the best PR for a USA-ian company like Lockheed Martin.
and an A400M Atlas transport aeroplane providing air-sea rescue cover.
That is bigger news than the F35B flying over. If you think the F35B has been the white elephant of the century that means you have never had a look at this project.
For the amount of money invested into that we could have bought Antonov, fired everyone except the designers, packed all of their factories and transported them to Bristol to build proper transport planes. Ones that work. Probably ~ 3 times. At least.
From Wikipedia:- John Gilbert, Britain's former Minister for Defence Procurement, stated in the British House of Lords "The A400M is a complete, absolute wanking disaster, and we should be ashamed of ourselves. I have never seen such a waste of public funds in the defence field since I have been involved in it these past 40 years."
I recall an incident when one of the test Typhoons came up to RAF Leuchars in the early 2000s. The test pilot did a show and tell with a bunch of the old and bold aircrew from the base, which included an ex-Lightning mate. The ex-Lightning pilot asked how fast the Typhoon could get from a standing start to 30000ft, to which the Typhoon guy immediately came back with, "how fast could your Lightning do it". The Lightning pilot proudly proclaimed 2 minutes (IIRC). The Typhoon pilot replied, "We can do it in 1 minute 40s". He then paused for dramatic effect, "in dry heat".
The original Lightning was a beautiful aircraft, with incredible ability for the day. But remembering the fact that once you've hit 60000ft you are almost out of fuel and looking to make a quick landing, I know what I would prefer to be fighting in today.
The F35 might be much maligned, but it is still an incredible aircraft.
"how fast could your Lightning do it". The Lightning pilot proudly proclaimed 2 minutes (IIRC). The Typhoon pilot replied, "We can do it in 1 minute 40s". He then paused for dramatic effect, "in dry heat".
TSR 2 with reheat on only one engine left a lighting for dead over forty years ago - progress eh?
It would appear to be a sample of a Thunderstone
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderstone_(folklore)
All we need now is for some sample of a PM to appear and pour beer over it (terrible waste, I know) and also anoint it with butter. And happy happy joy joy, the Slavs apparently believe they can cure warts!!! Putin will be oh so happy!!!
After the last official flight of the Vulcan, I was in a huddle on a sports pitch pitch listening to the pre-match team talk bollocks and one flew about 100ft over our heads. It was amazing. I assume it was flying to the scrapyard.
"Heads on! It's only a fucking plane" said the coach to the whole team who were staring at it. Bellend.
"[...] and one flew about 100ft over our heads."
In the late 1960s an air show at Wem announced that the English Electric Lightning was delayed. Lulled into a sense of mild disappointment the crowd were then immediately treated to its arrival at low level. Followed by a steep climb above our heads with afterburners glowing. The sound was gut wrenching.
While this has been some years ago, I'll tell a short tale of a young Boy Scout. Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton had a primitive camping area that they allowed Scout troops to use (on Base). There was also the "Wright-Patterson Trail for the Boys Scouts to hike and earn medals. I was on the trail which crossed close to the runways end, when 2 F-4s took off. They pulled the noses 90 degrees flipped on the afterburners continued onto their backs, flipped upright and was GONE. WHAT a RUSH (especially for a 10 or 12 year old boy)!
I remember walking along Spurn head* one day when a Lightning went past very close to the spit at really quite high speed.
It was rather loud and very unexpected but what was most impressive was that I swear I looked DOWN into the cockpit.
*Spurn head is a sand spit sticking out miles into the Humber estuary, technically the head is the end of the Spurn. The top of it is between 6-9m above sea level.
One of the Lightning squadrons retired delivered their Lightnings to Cranfield. We were waiting. The leader decided that he was not leaving any fuel in his lighting pulled up into a vertical climb over the airfield with full reheat. Stunning, no babies were sleeping, birds all took flight and livestock was panicking in nearby fields.
After that they were parked outside the hangars for months and we were able to virtually climb all over them.
I grew up five miles straight off one of the runways for a B-52 base
For a number of years we lived near Lyneham, directly under the approach flightpath for the Hercs. Until we blocked the chimney off, sometimes the noise was loud enough to drown out the TV..
We could always tell when the newbies were doing circuits and bumps. For hours and hours..
Yeah, just like HMS "Warspite" which was wrecked on the way to a scrapyard. Some true lovers of great warships suggested that she had beached herself to avoid the final indignity.
God forbid we would keep any of the magnificent artifacts to which we owe our freedom and survival.
I was up at lake Windermere a few weeks ago and was treated to Typhoon flyover, and while it's obviously not in the same league as a Vulcan, they don't half make a racket when they're coming down the lake at minimum altitude! :)
I'm pretty sure they were below whatever minimum altitude they're supposed to be sticking to as well, it felt like they were about 50m above our heads, which was bloody great :) The planes might have changed, but the pilots are still cut from the same cloth.
While travelling around the Scottish highlands a few years ago I stopped on the side of a road, running around the upper levels of a loch, to admire the view. Obviously a regular test route, two fighters snaked noisily through the valley at high speed. Were they at a low level? I was looking down on them.
What worries me about the F-35 is that we're having so much trouble with them under ideal conditions. What happens during a war when local factories have been bombed and international trade is disrupted so we can no longer get parts? Cannibalising broken planes to make a working one can only go so far and 3D printing of parts made from exotic high-temperature materials is not yet possible.
For a home-front war on that scale, UK's published policy has long been to resort to nuclear retaliation. Our conventional forces are intended only for overseas deployment.
It seems that the F-35's major role is intended to be as an airborne battlefield control centre cum escort fighter in charge of swarms of assorted droney things which do the actual ground-attack bit for it.
"Nuclear retaliation against whom? About 30 seconds thought would convince the stupidest of politicians that launching thermonuclear weapons - against anyone at all - could only make matters vastly, and suddenly, worse."
Yes, that's why the policy is called Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). Nobody would be mad enough to call our bluff -- or at least, so the theory goes. It is often credited with having staved off World War III and the nuclear holocaust during the Cold War, so who can argue with that?
MAD....is often credited with having staved off World War III and the nuclear holocaust during the Cold War, so who can argue with that?
Only people who've not observed the behaviours of glassy-eyed religious twats, or considered that small fat dictators might not care since they normally end up as a lamp post ornament, cornered in a bunker, or being beaten up on the bonnet of scabby old pick up truck?
It is often credited with having staved off World War III and the nuclear holocaust during the Cold War, so who can argue with that?
I use the same argument to justify my masturbation. I only do it so that WW III never happens. I'm getting old, though, and my libido is diminishing. One day in the near future, I shall stop. And then the thermonuclear shit will hit the fan. You mark my words.
Or, to put it another way, there is no proof that MAD prevented WW III, only mere conjecture. It seems like a plausible conjecture, but there was a time the flat earth seemed plausible.
No proof... other than what came out of the opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990's that is. You know, the official records of the debates of the Politburo. In which is was acknowledged that the threat of MAD made going to war with the west a really bad idea.
But hey, keep it going with the both the mental and the physical masturbation just in case.
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