An
April Fool Day article from
2016? Clearly in the last year the USN have cancelled the F-35C - not. In other news:
[F-35C Nose Gear/Catapult Fix] Next Big F-35 Contract Expected Later This Year 22 Mar 2017 Oriana Pawlyk
“...Babione [LM company’s general manager overseeing the F-35 program] said the company is moving quickly to repair the F-35C after it experienced rough acceleration during catapult-assisted takeoffs from Navy carriers — a hit on the most-expensive variant in the program, which was esti-mated to take months to fix, according to an Inside Defense report.
Babione said Lockheed and partners recently finished some testing at Naval Air Engineering Station Lakehurst in New Jersey, “trying two different techniques. One was changing the way the pilot straps in — how they get into the seat, how do they pull their harnesses,” he said. [wow]
Additionally, he said, “we changed the hold-back fixture... a little less load holding the airplane back when it launches” which reduces the stored energy in the nose gear.
Engineers haven’t yet determined whether one of or both techniques will be implemented, Babione said. Testing crews “will want to go back out to the carrier... sometime this fall,” he said....”
https://www.dodbuzz.com/2017/03/22/n...p-11-expected/