Originally Posted by
SpazSinbad
Someone asked about QE ski jumpy & F-35Bs (can't find 'someone' post again). The PDF above has lots of info with this snippet in there also:
Carrier countdown 30 June 2014 Tim Robinson
“...
Not your father’s ski-jump
The QE-class’s ski-jump, too, has been carefully designed and engineered from the beginning — drawing on BAE’s Harrier heritage. Says Atkinson: “We had to go back into the archives and talk to people who had actually been involved with trials with the Sea Harrier and Harrier to make sure we understood the history of ski-jump ramp development. The aircraft carrier ski-jump is a UK innovation and something the UK is very proud of.” The QEC’s ski-jump is longer (200ft) than the Invincible class (150ft) and designed so that the aircraft has all three (including the nose) wheels in contact right up until the point where the aircraft leaves the deck — giving positive nose wheel authority throughout. Additionally,
the F-35Bs smart flight control system ‘knows’ when it is going up a ramp and will pre-position the control surfaces and effectors to launch at the optimum angle to avoid pitch-up or down....”
http://aerosociety.com/News/Insight-...rier-countdown
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Sea Breezes - Guy Norris -AVIATION WEEK & SPACE TECHNOLOGY/OCTOBER 26-NOVEMBER 8, 2015
"...the F-35’s automatic lift system control will make operations from the ramp simpler and safer, says Wilson [BAe Systems lead f-35B Stovl test pilot Peter “Wizzer” Wilson]. “It has become remarkably simple, thanks to the cleverness of the airplane,” he adds. For a ski jump takeoff the pilot lines up, advances the throttle and maintains alignment with the main nozzle fully aft. When the ramp is reached, rate sensors on the aircraft recognize the change in attitude and deploy the nozzles to the appropriate vectoring angle. Once airborne, weight-on-wheels sensors signal the flight control system to reconfigure the aircraft for up-and-away flight...."
Thanks Spaz - very interesting answer thank you. And it does explain what was going on with the rear nozzle during the launch. The coding involved in controlling that (which is just a tiny part of the mission!) must be horrendous, with the added burden of multiple catastrophic failure scenarios given all the electro-mechanical sensor inputs and high-load mechanisms required. Almost seems pointless to have made the F35 habitable...