F-35, Why is it the Best Fighter in the World Today?

to say the f-35 project has come in for a lot of bad press over years is a bit of an understatement with any number of critics and armchair pilots pitching in at every little piece of bad news that percolates through the internet but with the aircraft now being deployed by the air forces of the countries that have bought them the real story of how good or bad it is comes from the people that really matter namely the pilots that actually fly the plane every day and the air crews that look after them this is why they think the f-35 is the best fighter in the world today [Music] [Applause] [Music] this video is sponsored by royal air force engineering now if you want to learn more about working on cutting edge technology upon which the RAF relies be bats state-of-the-art aircraft or communications technology then head on over to the RAF engineering website the address of which is in the description below although it's been seen by some as a replacement for three main aircraft namely the f-16 f-18 a and a Harrier a sort of three in one plane it's really three new planes that share the f-35 name with some commonality between them such as the cockpit engine parts of the airframe and avionics pretty much everything else has been specifically designed for the task required for each of the a B and C variants the a version is the lightest and intended for use with the Air Force with its conventional takeoff or landing the B version is the heaviest and intended for the marine corps and navies like a row Navy and has a short takeoff and vertical landing ability allowing it to be used from smaller carriers if required and makeshift runways closer to the frontline the C version is intended for use with the US Navy carriers and uses an assisted takeoff and arrested carrier landing the f-35 is a so-called fifth-generation aircraft because it has taken advantage of the technology which has been developed in the last 20 years or so but what does this mean in practical terms well to give you a very simple but effective example you only to look at model aircraft and helicopters in particular about 25 years ago in the mid-1990s I used to fly model aircraft for a hobby now the time model helicopters were the most difficult of all the types of aircraft to fly these took a lot of skill and practice just to get them to hover above a ground and do basic maneuvers just like the full-size ones much of a time it would all end up rather badly any became an expert rebuilder as well as an expert flyer fast-forward 25 years and you can now buy toy helicopters and their modern equivalent for quad copters from around 20 dollars these are things are a child to fly in a house and can even do acrobatic tricks of a touch of a button something that would have been unimaginable 25 years earlier so what has changed the helicopters or quadcopter be that a toy or proper model still works in exactly the same way as it always did what is advanced hugely in this time is the electronics namely the miniaturization of computers and the tiny gyros has allowed tiny auto pilots to be developed but do the hard work of keeping the helicopter or quadcopter stable in the air and you just need to tell it to go up down left or right now imagine what you can do when you have tens of billions of dollars and 20 years invested not only into the electronics and computers but also software and high-speed data connectivity the f-35 is the closest there is at the moment to being a software-defined aircraft which are the how is it to change fundamental aspects of the plane's behavior whilst in flight and allows you to do things that were previously impossible although the f-35 is a multi-role aircraft one of its primary goals as some pilots like to say is to kick down the door by suppression of enemy air defenses and to allow other aircraft in behind them to do this they need to know what they are flying into well ahead of time with all possible information available to identify the target and eliminate it without being detected until it's too late pilots talk much of the increased situational awareness they have in the f-35 with far more information being gathered than any previous generation aircraft in fact there have been called a mini version of the AWACS planes even though they have less powerful radar because of its stealth capabilities the f-35 can get much closer to the threat and getting much detailed view which is sent to the rest of a mission group but this is only part of what they can do because the same aircraft are supplied to the NATO partners pilots from the different countries can train and learn from each other and this allows for a much more integrated unit when the time comes the f-35 has been described as a flying sponge soaking up signals across the electromagnetic spectrum but whilst keeping its own emissions such as its radar cross-section and the heat signature from its engine to an absolute minimum along with its stealth capabilities compared to previous generation aircraft the radar on the f-35 is electronically steerable instead of mechanically this is so fast but it can effectively do the job of a surface-to-air radar and then switch to an air-to-air radar and back again and integrate the data so it looks like one combined radar view to the pilot Bayer 35 has a distributed aperture system or das this comprises of six infrared cameras flush mounted to the aircraft skin giving a 360 degree coverage to look for other planes or the rocket motors of missiles it also has radio antennas embedded in the edges of the wings and the tail to detect radar from the ground or air if any one of these sensors picks up a signal of interest others are automatically trained onto the same line of sight to fill in any missing data if a threat is of missile the das could work out its position and course to locate the launch site as well as alert the pilot to take action if a signal is determined to be coming from an area covered by the radar it's automatically told to look into the same area to find more information about the threat all of this is done without pilot involvement and the information is prioritized by the central computer so that only the most important information is given to the pilots this greatly reduces the workload but in a previous generation aircraft would have taken a crew of two to handle even though they will be working with much less information this and the Jets stealth capabilities allow f-35 pilots to detect an enemy threat at a far greater distance than before allowing them to deal with it before the enemy even knows they are there f-35 is working groups where all the sensor data is shared within the group's Network and the command center just for f-35s could cover an area of a hundred and thirty kilometers deep by 200 kilometers wide this fusion sensor information allows all the f-35 pilots in the battle space to see the same picture if one f-35 picks up on a threat all the others are alerted and the pilot from one f-35 can see what another f-35s sensor sweetie see all this makes it almost impossible for an enemy to make a surprise attack on the group having multiple sensors on multiple aircraft that are linked together means that if an enemy is able to jam one others are still available and because of their network nature other f-35 sima Network can identify the source and launch countermeasures this is why so much has been invested into making the f-35 as easy to fly as possible the pilot has a huge amount of information about his surroundings at his fingertips so if it takes all your time to fly the plane you can't handle all this information effectively take the helmet for example which is an integral part of a plane this is custom-made for each pilot for a perfect fit and is lighter than previous types for less neck strain in hygiene maneuvers the helmet provides a 360 degree view around the plane wherever the pilot is looking and also shows all the relevant data the pilot needs overlaid in his field of view the helmet can control the radar to track along the pilots line of sight even if his view is blocked by the body of the aircraft itself and can generate a fire control solution for guns and missiles simultaneously meaning that he or she can look through the body of a plane to see the target without having to change the position of the aircraft the helmet also contains a night-vision camera that shows flying at night - the pilot almost like flying in daylight which greatly reduces the chance of disorientation and it can also show the infrared image from the das cameras from around the plane again giving a 360 degree coverage color weather radar data can also be shown on the pilots visor to see thunderstorms squall lines and fronts that also could be a hazard to the plane the f-35 is also far more self-aware than any previous aircraft the aircraft monitors its entire airframe and how well it's reacting if it detects a problem it will adapt the whole aircraft's flying characteristics to compensate it can also do the same depending upon what the pilot is requiring of a plane and changes the way the aircraft flies to make it easier for the pilot in demanding situations much has been made of early tests where an f-35 lost out to a 40-year old f-16 in a dogfight but the software controlling the plane has come a long way since then after 2017 Paris Air Show Lieutenant Colonel David chip Burke confirmed the planes real dogfighting abilities by performing maneuvers that had previously been done in an f-22 Raptor with thrust vectoring but this time in an f-35 without thrust vectoring John Beasley V Lockheed f-35 chief test pilot said that the f-35 was as maneuverable as any other aircraft he said that the Russian fighters are often shown performing amazing maneuvers but what you're really seeing are the skills of an exception pilot but for the f-35 is an aircraft but everyone can fly exceptionally Beasley also said that they used the Navy approach for test maneuvers with a high angle of attack that swimmer knows he's high in the air in the aircraft slows dramatically one of the tests included turning off all the flight control imitations and getting the plane all wrapped up to a point where it lost control and then turning the flight control system back on and having the plane recover itself with little or no input from the pilot the f-35b Stovall version also shows that the flight control system can make the pilots life much easier than the harrier it replaces a squadron leader and the edge of the raf can attest to as an ex harrier pilot he said that landing mihari err on an aircraft carrier could be borderline terrifying and hovering was like riding a unicycle you have to continuously pedal or move something whether it be your left hand your right hand or your feet the f-35b by contrast could hover by itself hands-free for as long as it had fuel in its tanks a choke was also the first to perform an aft landing on an aircraft carrier that's basically landing on the carrier from the wrong end a procedure that could be used if the carrier was dead in the water but facing the wrong way into the wind for landings again something but he said was really rather benign because the plane just adjusted itself to compensate to fly with the tailwind there 35b is also one of a few planes that can do ship-borne rolling vertical landings using thrust vectoring and a flight control system to slow down and then come to a stop using just the computer control disc brakes this would be used when the plane might be still carrying a full weapons load and a vertical landing could damage the landing gear otherwise these are just a small selection of why many pilots think that the f-35 is the best fighter in the world and this is just the first foray into software controlled aircraft something which we will see a lot more of in the future but for now the f-35 is the king of a hill

Channel: Curious Droid

Views: 484,785

Rating: 4.7806435 out of 5

Keywords: f-35, f35, f-35 lightning ii, best fighter in the world today, RAF, USAF, US Marines, Royal Navy, lockheed martin f-35 lightning ii, distributed aperture system, Active electronically scanned array, aesa, paul shillito, curious droid

Id: CJAT70VOAq8

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Fri May 29 2020