The MYTH Of The "F-35"

there's a good chance that many of you will recognize this aircraft it's the F35 it's a highly capable stealthy attack aircraft and many Western militaries have high hopes for it with orders in the thousands however the expected total cost of the program to the US taxpayer is around $1.6 trillion that's trillion with a t and to many people this understandably seems absolutely obscene $1.6 trillion dollar light end to end would reach from Earth to the Sun and 70% of the way back again it's an insane figure but the F35 also known as The Joint Strike Fighter could be seen as relatively good value and that's because the F35 is not just one aircraft it's four well three and a half and this isn't even me exaggerating for clicks well maybe a bit but the entire idea of the Joint Strike Fighter or JSF program that started in 1995 was to design one airframe that could perform three roles with only minor differences keeping Parts commonality above 70% and thus saving billions of dollars this is difficult but not impossible the newest F-15 ex known as the eagle 2 has over 70% Parts commonality with the regular F-15 Eagles from the 1970s the fa18 Super Hornet is % larger 7 tons heavier and has 40% more range than the Legacy Hornet it replaced and still managed to share around 30% of its components with the regular Hornet however by the time the F35 entered service in the mid-20s the aircraft on the left the f-35a only shared around 20% of its components with the aircraft on the right which is an f35b the aim of this video is to prove to you just how different the F3 5 aircraft are why they are so different and how this affects their capabilities let's get into it the JSF program was kicked off in the 1990s and aimed to replace four different airframes in service across three branches of the US military the air forces f-16s and a10s the Navy's f-18s and the marine corps's av8b harriers and they thought they could do this with essentially one airframe in 2001 Lockheed Martin's x35 was chosen for the program comfortably beating out Boeing's X32 which could be one of the ugliest aircraft to ever fly and so we had our base design but to match the capabilities of the four aircraft it was meant to replace the F35 would have to be able to do a lot the Air Force wanted a relatively cheap Air Supremacy and strike aircraft that they could produce in huge numbers the Navy wanted a rugged reli viable allrounder that could operate from an aircraft carrier and the Marine Corps wanted it to be able to take off vertically to operate from their amphibious assault ships oh and of course all three branches wanted it to be as stealthy as possible so you can see where all this money went and to be honest it worked with huge international support and the development cost shared among thousands of airframes the unit cost for the F35 is only around $90 million it's a lot of money but for a fifth generation stealth fighter and one of the most capable airframes in history it's not too bad but anyway different aircraft we start with the Air Force's F-35 the f-35a this is sometimes known as the seaall F35 standing for conventional takeoff and Landing it's the smallest lightest and fastest F35 and is sort of the base model it's essentially a more capable stealthier F6 with better performance against gr targets and is second only to the F-22 in terms of Air Supremacy the f-35a will be by far the most common variant and is the one that the majority of export customers have bought after all unless you have an aircraft carrier or any pressing reason for the aircraft to take off vertically it just makes the most sense it's currently in service with the US Air Force Italy Japan Australia Denmark the Netherlands Norway and South Korea with other six countries awaiting delivery the f-35a is the F-35 Israel also operate the f-35a sort of it's actually another separate variant known as the f-35i known in Israel as the ader which is Hebrew for awesome or mighty one the f-35i is essentially an f-35a with Israeli modifications which Israel have fought hard for over many years they use their own electronic warfare systems sensors and countermeasures and reserve the right to equip the F-35 with Israeli made missiles guided bombs and jamming pods the IDF are planning to fit the ader with conformal fuel tanks like they use on their f-15s and f-16s and are even looking into producing a two- seat version of the aircraft it's important to note that Israel are the only partner nation that are given this sort of freedom and all other operators have to get explicit approval from the US before making any modification at all so that's the f-35a conventional takeoff and Landing lightweight mass production huge amounts of exports the F35 C is wildly different the C model aircraft are made for carriers there is a reason that we very rarely see carrier aircraft operated from land or vice versa and that is because to land and take off on an aircraft carrier is a relatively specialized thing the f-35a would not be able to fly slow enough to actually land on an aircraft carrier it would most likely stall as it attempted it as the speed of the air over the wings no longer provided enough lift to keep the thing Airborne even if it managed to get down on the carrier the a model's landing gear is not rated for that kind of landing and would likely give out completely and so came the C model the F35 C is designed for cat bar operations catapult assisted takeoff but arrested recovery essentially it was designed to operate off the Navy's massive Nimitz or Gerald R Ford class carriers to allow this the C model has a much larger Wing providing more lift and allowing the f-35c to stay controllable at the low speeds required the wing area was increased by around 45% leading to an increased wingspan of 13.1 M compared to the a model's 10.7 M this isn't ideal for an aircraft carrier which has limited storage space so the f-35c also has folding wing tips the C model is the largest and the heaviest but also has the greatest range as the large Wings allow for more fuel to be carried about 600 kg more than the f-35a another notable difference is the landing gear which has been massively reinforced this is most notable in the front with a larger two wheel design replacing the dty single wheel of the A and B models all these modifications do make the C model slower than the A and it is limited to just 7.5 G Maneuvers while the Air Force version can withstand turns exceeding 9 GS these are very similar trade-offs to the airframes the F35 was designed to replace the Navy's F18 is slower than the Air Force's F-16 and can handle less G's but is larger with better range and is of course carrier capable the f-35a f35i and f-35c are incredibly impressive but not quite as impressive as the Marine cores version the F35 B this is a fifth generation stealth fighter aircraft capable of Vall vertical takeoff and Landing the B model aircraft are outwardly quite similar to the a models with the same rough size and shape but behind the cockpit you will see a large hatch below this hatch is a massive lift fan when taking off vertically the f35b opens this hatch and rotates the rear engine nozzle downward providing two massive sources of vertical thrust to propel it into the air to keep the f35b stable during this process small rule control ducks are present in both Wings when the aircraft is high enough the rear engine pivots back to horizontal the roll control docks are covered and the lift fan is tucked away allowing the aircraft to operate like a regular fixed Wing Design This means it can operate from well anywhere a woodland clearing a parking lot or importantly the deck of a smaller aircraft carrier or amphibious assault ship like those used by the US Marine Corps the United Kingdom Italy and Japan the f35b gives these navies the capability to operate a cuttingedge stealth fighter without having to invest trillions into a massive catapult capable aircraft carrier however there are some serious trade-offs the f35b is a lot heavier than the f-35a while carrying the least fuel having the shortest range the smallest weapons payload and the lowest G limit at just seven GS this is because while obviously the lift fan allows the f35b to actually take off once it has got airborne and transitioned in a normal flight the fan is just dead weight and has to be logged around until it's time to land again it takes up fuel space makes the B models a bit fatter and less streamlined and adds weight but a worthwhile trade-off just like that of the Harrier jump jets that preceded it the UK operates the f35b from their Queen Elizabeth class carriers and often refers to them as the joint combat aircraft which is their official designation for the program the jca program was paired with a future carrier initiative and both the F-35 and the QE class carriers were developed to work seamlessly with one another the Brits actually operate the B model in a short takeoff vertical Landing configuration using a half conventional half vertical takeoff with a ski jump to save fuel they did accidentally launch one directly into the sea a year or so ago but we are assured it will not happen again I hope now you understand how wildly different the f35s are and how in my opinion they are completely different aircraft 20% Parts share between them certainly support that point anyway I'm aware this is not an in-depth video and I've not got into the finer details on the JSF or even the real differences between them but I hope you learn something regardless if you do want more detail real engineering has done two excellent videos that I cannot recommend enough I do hope you've enjoyed this video please do subscribe for more content and as always thank you so much to my Patron supporters and thanks to everyone for watching I'll see you in the next one

Channel: Red Wrench Films

Views: 526,272

Keywords: F-35, F35, F-35B, F-35A, F-35C, F-35 Variants, VTOL, CTOL, CATOBAR

Id: p7dR5jZpVHw

Length: 11min 20sec (680 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 26 2024