For 'LowObservable' quotes above - here are some more for the collection....
Corps preps for F-35 with landing pads, hangars By James K. Sanborn - Staff writer Posted : Tuesday Dec 6, 2011
Corps preps for F-35 with landing pads, hangars - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times
"The Marine Corps is pushing ahead with infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the anticipated arrival of the F-35B.
The recent announcement of a multimillion-dollar project to build five pads for vertical landings at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C.,...
...The new pads will “consist of a combination of advanced high-temperature concrete material, standard runway grade concrete and asphalt materials,” according to the pre-solicitation, posted Nov. 22 on FedBizOpps.gov.
Despite plans for the vertical landing pads, the F-35B has not proven as unwieldy as critics of the program initially predicted. Some said, for example, that the F-35B would damage decks and injure crew aboard ships.
But successful sea trials conducted aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp in October proved them wrong. The trials were the first to see the aircraft land on a ship while underway and went without a hitch.
“There was no special pad required for the initial ship trials,” according to Victor Chen, a Naval Air Systems Command spokesman in Patuxent River, Md...."
_______________
F-35C first flight (and heat and noise concerns...) June 14, 2010
https://cencio4.wordpress.com/2010/0...-first-flight/
“...Lockheed Martin spokesman John Kent responded to the story this morning, saying, without providing any documentation, that the documents “cited in your story are out of date and incorrect. The information presented in those documents was based on worst-case analysis before extensive testing of the actual F-35B aircraft was conducted during January through March 2010.
Results of the aircraft testing show that the difference between F-35B main-engine exhaust temperature and that of AV-8B is very small and is not expected to require any significant CONOPS changes for F-35B....” [
quote near the end of initial post above]
______________________
http://ve.ida.org/rtoc/open/SIP/jsf.html [no longer working URL]
“…Lockheed Martin has developed a STOVL lift system that uses a vertically oriented Lift Fan. A two-stage low-pressure turbine on the engine delivers the horsepower to drive the STOVL Lift Fan. The Lift Fan generates a column of cool air that produces nearly 20,000 pounds of lifting power using variable inlet guide vanes to modulate the airflow, along with an equivalent amount of thrust from the downward vectored rear exhaust to lift the aircraft. The Lift Fan has a clutch that engages for STOVL operations and a telescoping “D” -shaped hood to provide thrust deflection.
Because the lift fan extracts power from the engine, exhaust temperatures are reduced by about 200 degrees compared to traditional STOVL systems….”
______________________
PARLIAMENTARY JOINT COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, DEFENCE & TRADE | Department of Defence annual report 2010-11 |
20 MARCH 2012
House of Representatives Committees – Parliament of Australia
“...
Mrs GASH: [Who shall not be ditched] I have a very naive question — I am a female after all. How do we handle the bad publicity that you guys are getting on this aircraft? How do you expect us to handle that when we do not know all the ins-and-outs like you do? I come from HMAS Albatross [NAS Nowra, South Coast, NSW Australia], and you have got a place down there, and I get this regularly — not on a daily basis, but it is fairly regular. How do I answer that?...
...
Air Cdre Bentley: I think the urban myths get out there and stay out there, and it is very hard to get rid of them. One of those urban myths, for instance, was that when we landed on an LHD the downwash would blow people off the deck and it would melt the deck. Neither of those things were true. However, we were seeing comments that the aeroplane had scorched the deck, because there was a black mark on the deck. It is very hard to try to convince the sceptics that these things are not happening, and the proof of the capability is being put out there. When you have urban myths on the internet they are always there; you cannot remove those myths from the internet despite what you say....”
______________________
Navy Sees Few Anomalies in F-35B Ship Trials Oct 31, 2011 by Amy Butler Onboard the USS Wasp
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/gener...ne=Navy&next=0
...Thermal impacts to the ship’s deck have been a concern leading up to these trials. Though formal data haven’t yet been analyzed, Tom Briggs, the integrated test team engineering lead at Patuxent River who is helping to oversee the ship trials, says the aircraft is performing as predicted by the models in terms of heat ingestion on the ship. Officials had been concerned that the F-35B would reingest its own hot exhaust, im-pacting performance of the propulsion system and potentially damaging hardware. There are no such perfor-mance impacts thus far, Cordell says. “We feel like we are running where we intended to crawl.” Additionally,
there is “nothing mysterious” about the thermal qualities of the F-35B on the deck, says Ansis Kalnajs, a test director for Naval Sea Systems Command who is leading the effort to study the aircraft impacts on the ship.”
_____________________
Aviation Week & Space Technology October 3, 2011; pages 31-32
Vertical Validation by GUY NORRIS | LOS ANGELES
"Positive handling test results underline a turnaround in progress of F-358 trials...
...Tasks also included evaluations of two areas of potential concern to F-35B shipboard operations:
measurement of the impact of the hot exhaust on the landing pad and deck environment, and hot gas ingestion into the inlet.
Vertical landings at Pax River have been conducted on two pads made from standard extruded AM-2 aluminum tile mats measuring 120 ft. and 150 ft. square, respectively.
“We’ve been recording the points on the pad where the nozzle is pointed and, after initial landings, removed the specific tile and tested it for strength. There was no loss of strength,” Wilson says. “Now we’re waiting for 10 vertical landings on one specific tile before we do the next strength test.” As of late September, fewer than half of the required number of landings on the particular tile had occurred. Overall, results of the testing to date “give no cause for concern for AM-2 compatibility,” Wilson says.
Additionally, ground personnel have gradually moved closer to the pad for each vertical landing, as part of systematic efforts to determine the safest proximity to the touchdown area. Wilson says that so far
these tests indicate safe distances similar to those of current Harrier operations...."
_______________________
Continuing to “Work” the Problem By Ed Timperlake | August 30, 2011
SLD Forum: Debating the Future
“...The story ‘Under Fire’ treats the issue of the future of naval aviation from the perspective of the Tac Air memo we cited earlier....
...With regard to the article, we were surprised to see the only photo in the story as showing an F-35B landing on AM-2 matting at Pax River. And here we learn that “Aluminum matting is used to protect the surface from the F135 engine exhaust.”
Having watched many Harriers land on AM-2 matting last week at an airfield in North Carolina, we were surprised to learn that AM-2 matting in the photo was being deployed for engine exhaust of another aircraft.
So we decided to call the USMC HQ specialist on the matter Major Brad Alello & he told us that “AM-2 matting has been used by the USMC since BEFORE the Vietnam War.” But for Av Week’s imaginative purpose they make this a modification for the F-35B. Perhaps some facts checking in the rest of the article might be called for....”