VIDEO: History of the F-35 by Skunk Works inventor (3 parts)
By Stephen Trimble on March 22, 2010
VIDEO: History of the F-35 by Skunk Works inventor (3 parts) - The DEW Line
"The DEW Line is pleased to offer a three-part video showing a fascinating (albeit poorly-lit), 1hr lecture on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, presented last week by Skunk Works engineer Paul Bevilaqua at Johns Hopkins University's applied physics laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
Bevilaqua is credited with the invention of Lockheed Martin's shaft-driven lift-fan, the core technology allowing the short-takeoff-vertical-landing (STOVL) F-35B...."
39 second VIDEO snippet (5.3Mb) at PhotoBucket shows the 'cool' temperature during an F-35B VL simulation. Otherwise go to the webpage above to view 3 videos which make up the presentation. Quote approximation: "concrete spalls at 1,000 deg F whilst concrete temp under F-35B exhaust is 600 deg F".
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Additional text added here to explain video.
'LowObservable' said on page 75 of this thread [
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ml#post7767529 ]
"...WhiteOvies - Wheeler raises a perfectly valid point. As you note, the VL pad at Pax is AM-2 mat,
but laid over concrete as a heat-shield rather than as a structural surface over dirt or cr@ppy asphalt. The VL pads at Yuma and Beaufort are made of heat-resistant concrete. There's some notion of a "creeping vertical" landing but there is no word as to when that will be demonstrated at all, let alone on the equivalent of a 3,000-foot-somewhere-ending-in-stan runway...."
'LowObservable' said on page 77 of this thread [
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ml#post7769356 ]
"...As for the landing environment: The current contracts for the construction of heat-resistant landing pads are based on Navy engineers' data, which show that a single F-35B VL on standard concrete may cause spalling (that is, near-explosive breakup due to subsurface moisture turning to steam). This data appeared in late 2010, IIRC, and was pooh-poohed by LockMart (and its cheerleaders) on the grounds that tests had shown the ground environment to be no worse than Harrier. Despite this, the same NavFac specs are still in force and the pizza-oven concrete is still specified in construction contracts. And I have yet to see a land VL performed on anything other than AM-2-shielded concrete or the specially built pads."
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Reference recent photo of AM-2 matting on asphalt at NAS Patuxent River (+ old video of the same site) here (2 places):
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ml#post7769396 &
http://www.pprune.org/military-aircr...ml#post7767601
Best hear the video clip to understand the 'cool' 600 degree F temp on concrete during a VL - similar to Harrier. Similarly USS Wasp and tests at NAS Patuxent River on the AM-2 matting during F-35B VLs confirm the environment is similar to the Harrier. Click second graphic for video - first graphic is a screenshot showing 600 degree F concrete temperature during VL.
