How Fighter Pilots Train To Fly The Marine Corps’ F-35B | Boot Camp

this is the f-35b lightning ii the marine corps multi-role fighter jet is equipped with the most advanced sensor suite of any fighter in history and the most powerful engine of any jet in the world which can reach a top speed of 1200 miles per hour it's just revolutionized what fighter aircraft are capable of and these are the pilots training to fly that 100 million dollar aircraft a lot of people just think you know you show up fly and then go home have a beer but it's not all like that not only are you flying but you're talking on four different radios you're working the radar you're working the t-flare you're working the actual optical system there while you're still navigating talking to atc and then working weapons on top of that student pilots spend a year training to fly the f-35 bravo here at the marine corps air station in beaufort south carolina this is a pilot's last stop before getting deployed to a fleet squadron overseas and it's here they learn to handle the multi-role fighter jet in a variety of missions we do strikes so aerial interception we do oca dca so offensive counter-air defensive counter-air arm reconnaissance and then really the bread and butter though is seeds expression of enemy air defenses the pilots we met are part of marine fighter attack squadron 501 also known as the warlords once you complete here they send you out to the fleet squadrons you know out in yuma or japan student pilots in the training squadron have already completed flight school so training is focused specifically on operating the f-35b eventually every fighter pilot that comes through the marine corps is going to go fly on f35 i'm uh michael watts my major in the marine corps my grandfather was a pilot in world war ii and i would always go to his house see his models of his b-25 bomber and also my father was a navy pilot in vietnam so i kind of grew up with it you know in my blood right here we're just basically sorry you learn how to fly the airplane and then you go through all the different mission sets and basic skills because there are only so many jets that can fly at a time most of the pilot's instruction comes on the ground in the simulator and in the classroom we weren't allowed to film some classified aspects of the pilot's instruction but we were allowed to film the pilots practicing the aircraft's most unique capabilities and go behind the scenes as they suited up for a training mission during training it's crucial for the pilots to get comfortable executing the f-35b's stovall maneuvers because they'll have to master those techniques on an aircraft carrier really the main thing is when we fly off the ship so when i get out to japan here in a few weeks i'll eventually be learning how to fly off the ship how do we get on there we do vertical landings how do we take off we do short takeoffs and so that's really the big reason why we're doing that lockheed martin makes three variations of the f-35 lightning ii but the marine corps f-35 bravo is the only one with stovall capabilities this feature is a big reason why the marine corps 2019 aviation plan called for replacing its current fleet of aircraft with more than 350 f-35bs we're replacing all of the hornets all the harriers and all the prowlers with f-35s conventional jets need about 3000 feet for takeoff but in optimal conditions an f-35b can take off in just a couple hundred feet for a takeoff we get onto the runway and then at that point is when we initiate a conversion we literally just hit a button and then the plane like goes through its like transformer sequence right once that's complete we're now what's in called stovall mode there's different kinds of short takeoffs we can do my favorite's the the button it's called the button stow and just i'm accelerating down the runway and literally just click a button and then the plane will take off by itself it's pretty pretty incredible and then shortly after takeoff we can convert back to conventional mode once we get to a certain airspeed once in the air actually handling the jet isn't the most difficult aspect of operating it it's actually a really easy airplane to fly it's more difficult to process the amount of information it provides to you i would say knowing where to look at the right time the student pilots already have experience flying jets so much of their training is focused on utilizing technology unique to the f-35b a lot of the difficulty is trying to absorb all the information the jet's given you operate all the sensors and the systems at the same time and fly and really that's probably the number one struggle once a practice mission is complete pilots must take on another of the jet's unique features executing a vertical landing having never done it it was an experience my brain telling me not to slow down because in the hornet slow down that meant you're going to fall out of the sky it's a normal approach to landing like you're as if you're going to the runway right and then you're going to level off and then set a certain ground speed and then at a certain distance from the pad you're gonna start a deceleration and all that is is just a click of a button and then from there you're making sure that you're centered on the pad then you just push forward on a stick and then descend right onto the pad [Applause] i would say the first time doing a vertical landing in the f-35b is is pretty crazy you practice it a lot in the sim you do it you know dozens of times in the simulator but the first time you do it in the plane just slowing down for the first time like that and hovering over a pad with over 30 000 pounds of metal 150 feet in the air is pretty neat usually you have like the world kind of coming at you when you're flying right and so you're kind of sitting there just like looking outside as if you're like in the tower or something and you trust that you're you're fine there you know that you're still flying before stepping foot in the cockpit student pilots need to familiarize themselves with the gear needed to operate the f-35b starting with their anti-gravity suit which helps prevent them from losing consciousness while operating the jet it's a fabric material that has bladders inside of it and whenever you pull g it uses pressure from the engine to inflate and then it prevents your blood from pulling down to your legs and it pushes it up to your abdomen as much as possible each pilot's g-suit is custom made to fit perfectly around their lower body and then we have a flight jacket that we put on and it has a bunch of survival gear the pilot's flight jacket is filled with a multitude of survival tools in the event that they have to eject from the aircraft including a flare emergency strobe light compass survival knife extra water whistle radio and an oxygen mask they have a code car for hand and arm signals just uh signal search and rescue basically then they have a signaling mirror just to signal the aircraft was just the mirror and the reflections some less conventional survival tools are supplied by the pilots themselves i always try to take my wallet in case i have to to land somewhere else other than back here that's happened to me before you land somewhere yesterday you don't have any wallet or phone or anything which is kind of difficult so definitely take my wallet with me every time in the event the pilots have to eject from the jet their flight jacket is embedded with a unique safety feature there's arm restraint lines that are routed throughout the jacket when you eject they pull your arms basically in towards your body you're basically ensuring that your arms aren't going to get flailed out into the wind the jacket is also equipped with a flotation device in case the pilot has to eject over a body of water so as soon as it touches the water it will inflate the entire jacket so they don't have to do anything if their arms are broken or anything after ejection last but not least the pilots learn to utilize the most technologically advanced piece of equipment their four hundred thousand dollar helmets each helmet is custom fit to its wearer based on a 3d scan of the pilot's head it's also equipped with noise-canceling headphones night vision and a forward-facing camera that records each flight the pilot's heads-up display is projected directly onto their visor rather than on the glass at the front of the cockpit thanks to two small projectors inside the helmet this allows the pilot to easily view key data such as altitude air speed and direction since the jet is able to help us so much really flying should be second nature that way you can focus on all the information that the jet's giving you finally the f-35s distributed aperture system creates a 360-degree view of the jet's surroundings by stitching together feeds from six cameras mounted on the plane enabling the pilot to see through the base and walls of the aircraft i think a lot of people underestimate the amount of work it takes to to become a pilot and a fire pilot specifically a one-hour flight even a simulated one might mean up to six additional hours of briefing gearing up flight inspections and debriefing not to mention the hours spent studying for each mission so you could spend a whole day preparing and debriefing one single hour of flight i think it's awesome to be in the fifth generation stealth fighter kind of at the tip of the spear it's a heavily weighted aircraft in terms of the combat power that the marine corps brings to the fight and i'm honored to be a part of that it's definitely pretty cool to you know carry on that tradition talk to my dad about everything that i'm doing now and how it relates to what he did all the airports that he flew into you know some of the ones that i've flown into as well so he has stories it's pretty neat [Music] you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 5,318,422

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, Marine Corps, Fighter Pilots, Boot Camp

Id: GNeuIeFnkuE

Length: 9min 54sec (594 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 08 2021