LOL - Cool BEens
LAL - some more quotable quotes for STOVL MODE 4 auto eject:
Punching Out Jan 2021 IAN PARKER - Combat Aircraft Journal Jan 2021 Volume 22 No 1
“...
Automatic ejections
With some F-35B aircraft failures, the aircraft departure characteristics could be too fast for the aircrew to react in time. Roberts says: “With Lockheed Martin, we carried out a lot of system modeling to determine which conditions the aircraft could get into where the aircrew are not able to eject in time.
Certain failure scenarios were identified, however unlikely, where the aircraft was transitioning to and from wingborne flight in the STOVL mode. These conditions would require the aircrew to eject quicker than the fastest recorded reaction times for most aircrew. Based on this, the F-35B introduced an automatic ejection capability for the very first time in the West.”
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When All Else Fails 22 Dec 2013 Mark Ayton ["outlines the life-saving ejection seat"]
[magazine special a decade or so ago about the F-35]
"...The STOVL aircraft propulsion configuration results in unique failure mode conditions, which the pilot is not able to react to quickly enough to eject manually. This resulted in the US16E seat interfacing with Lockheed Martin’s auto-eject system which caters for low-altitude, low-speed and adverse pitch attitude escape conditions...."
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Martin-Baker: Saving Lives in the Family Way 15 Jun 2015 Chris Pocock
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...ves-family-way
"... the F-35B version of the Lightning II has an auto-eject mode. This is
designed to function in the specific instance where the STOVL aircraft is in the hover, and the shaft-driven lift fan fails. In that case, the jet is likely to pitch down sharply, quicker than the pilot can react to fire the seat manually. It will therefore fire automatically while the possibility of escape remains...."
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Jane’s features WFEL’s F35B ski jump’s involvement in HMS Queen Elizabeth trials Oct 2017 Richard Scott
https://www.wfel.com/en/news/janes-f...involveme/1008
"...QinetiQ flight test engineer Gordon Stewart, who has spent much of the last five years attached to the joint US/UK F-35 Integrated Test Force at Patuxent River, points out that making STOVL easy was an important design consideration for the F-35B control law. “Because of the high level of automation embodied, a ski-jump launch is in fact the most straightforward take-off manoeuvre for the STOVL variant of the Lightning II,” he explained to a Royal Aeronautical Society audience in May this year. “When the pilot slams the throttle, the control law is configuring the aircraft for maximum acceleration.”
At the point the aircraft accelerates up the ramp, the control law detects the change in pitch rate and attitude. “That’s the point where it transitions into ski-jump mode,” Stewart said. “Once that occurs, the aircraft has approximately one second to transition to flyaway.”
During that brief period, the control law is configuring the aircraft to minimise the pitch transient on exiting the ramp. It achieves this by setting the horizontal tail position, repositioning the angle of the engine nozzle, and changing the balance/rate of thrust between the lift fan and the aft nozzle. “The thrust split moves forward on the ramp, then back after exit,” said Stewart. “That rapid change in ratio to balance [the aircraft in airborne flight] reflects what’s happening coming off the ramp....”
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F-35B begins new ski-ramp testing campaign c.18 Jul 2017
http://www.janes.com/article/72352/f-35 ... ign=buffer [lost right click for mouse?! - impossible to use Windows without RIGHT CLICKING!]]
"...[ Pete ‘Wizzer’ Wilson, BAE Systems F-35 STOVL lead test pilot] The F-35B flight control law mode incorporates a so-called Ski Jump Short Take Off (STO) Mode. There is no action on the part of the pilot to engage it, other than to ensure the aircraft is steered up the ski jump; rather, the mode is enabled when the Control Law detects the rotation and rotation rate as the aircraft accelerates up the ski jump."
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F-35 Flight Testing At Pax 15 Oct 2012 Eric Hehs
F-35 Lightning II Flight Testing At NAS Patuxent River | Code One Magazine
"...The flight control laws for the STOVL variant have six modes that are associated with specific actuations. Mode 1 defines conventional flight. Mode 4 defines STOVL. The other four modes define transitional states between the two primary modes...."