F-35 Cancelled, then what ?

[Engines]

George,

Thanks for coming back - perhaps I can help again here.

No, overall length was not constrained by CVS lifts. I can tell you for certain that the ORD did not require the aircraft to go down the CVS elevator.

The main thing constraining overall size was the requirement to build a STOVL single engined single seat aircraft. This, as I've posted before, was a quite deliberate move by the DoD to attempt to keep overall size and cost down. They'd seen three major tactical aircraft programmes fail as twin engined designs got bigger and bigger and more expensive. JSF was mandated to be single engined single seat.

The jet is nine feet shorter than an SH mainly because it's single engined, needs to do a VL, and can't carry another nine feet of fuselage around.

George, The QEC is big, but it's not Forrestal sized. Only two cats maximum, and no simultaneous launch and recovery. But it could take a C. The problem is that the UK:

a. Left the decision way too late
b. (In my view) can't afford the other costs of running cat and trap (machinery, training, currency, personnel)

Frost - estimating fleet sizes is an absolutely arcane black art that I was slightly involved in, and came away convinced that any numbers bid for are linked more to politics and budgets rather than a true military need. My opinion only - if you've gone to the trouble of putting a carrier group to sea with a QEC size ship, somewhere between 18 and 24 jets embarked would represent an effective capability. But it all depends on conops and such forth. Me engineer, no understand.

Best regards as ever to those sorting out the ops side of things,

Engines