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Old 1st Nov 2019, 17:45
  #5684 (permalink)  
Engines
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: UK
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ORAC,

Breaking my 'go quiet' rule only to say thank you. Yes, you are quite right, the F-35C is really a lot slower to go supersonic and it does burn fuel - bigger wings and tails will do that. (Curse those pesky laws of physics). Incidentally, as part of the 2004/5 weight reduction effort, I believe that LM were looking at removing some internal fuel tank capacity from the C, as it was showing a predicted range way above the KPP figures. I don't know if that went ahead, though. If they did, that would be quite an unusual design decision - but it shows how important the weight reduction programme was for all 3 variants, not just the B.

One lesson I've learned on my journey through aircraft engineering is this - getting aircraft to be able to do 'cat and trap' operations is way, way harder than the USN makes it look. Getting aircraft to do it and be operationally effective is even harder than that. Being operationally effective at sea at night in bad weather is even harder than THAT.

Best Regards as ever to all those doing just that right now.

Engines
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