Originally Posted by
MechEngr
I think the Japanese nose gear failure is completely unrelated. There are long drag marks from the main gear indicating the brakes were locked to stop the wheels turning. I would not expect most nose gear to handle being pulled opposite to the braking direction while the main gear is skidding.
Edit: Excluding catapult launched aircraft, which this does not appear to be.
I think the point being made isn't that the nosewheel failures are linked, but that the nosewheel may have an inherent weakness that needs to be addressed.
The Martin-Baker Mk16-US16E ejection seat as fitted to the F-35B does indeed have an active automatic ejection system which fires the seat when certain criteria are sensed. These are low speed, low altitude and adverse pitch rate.
The same seat fitted to the F-35A and F-35C does not have this system.
Indeed, though I don't think the automatic ejection system is what sent the pilot skywards on this occasion, as whatever parameters would have caused the seat to fire automatically were present some seconds before it actually fired. Suspect the pilot made the choice and ejected himself.