F-35B down.
 

https://www.islandpacket.com/news/lo...219182290.html

Hope the reports of a safe ejection are correct.

Indeed, The F35 seemed to have turned a corner recently...hopefully this is only a blip. With any military frame it was bound to happen. And hopefully positive news about the pilot soon.

Also hoping the reports of a successful ejection are correct.

Best regards to all those who have to use the Martin Baker option - and to this pilot today.

Engines

Update:
https://www.islandpacket.com/news/lo...219182290.html

Pilot ejected, undergoing medical examination but in one piece.

F-35 crashes for the first time in the jet’s 17-year history, pilot ejects safely

By Paul Sonne

September 28 at 3:35 PM

The U.S. military suffered its first crash of an F-35 aircraft in the 17 year history of the high-profile fighter jet program, the same day the Pentagon announced it had struck a deal with defense contractor Lockheed Martin to drive down costs for the next batch of planes to a historical low.

The crash of the Marine Corps variant of the F-35, known as the F-35B Lightning II, occurred Friday at 11:45 a.m. outside Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina, according to the Marine Corps. The service did not give a suspected cause for the crash, saying the incident remained under investigation.

“The U.S. Marine pilot safely ejected from the single-seat aircraft and is currently being evaluated by medical personnel,” the Marines said in a statement. “There were no civilian injuries.”

The aircraft, which cost more than $100 million, belonged to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501, which trains Marine pilots for combat with the F-35.

In the past, F-35 jets have made emergency landings, experienced in-flight incidents, including oxygen deprivation among crews, and suffered from engine fires and other failures on the ground. But this is the first time the military has suffered a full-blown crash of an F-35 involving the ejection of a pilot.

A U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation remained underway, said the Marine Corps initially classified the crash as a Class A mishap, which is defined as an incident resulting in the complete destruction of the plane, more than $2 million in damage or the fatality or permanent total disability of the crew.

The Pentagon’s deal with Lockheed Martin for 141 fighter jets comes amid persistent controversy over a weapons program that has become the most expensive the Defense Department has ever undertaken.

The most common variant of the Joint Strike Fighter, known as the F-35A, dropped below $90 million per unit for the first time, to $89 million, a 5.4 percent decrease from the previous lot. The price per unit for the Marine Corps and Navy versions dropped to $115 million and $108 million, respectively.

President Trump has pushed Lockheed Martin for lower costs and taken credit for hundreds of millions of dollars in savings, though the F-35 unit price was projected to decrease as the fighter jet transitioned from its development phase into production.

The Pentagon has attributed an increase in aviation accidents to a mix of causes, including years of stopgap funding from Congress, aging equipment, strained maintenance crews and reduced flying hours for pilots.

An investigation by the Military Times earlier this year found that Marine Corps aviation mishaps had jumped 80 percent over the last five years, an increase that came alongside similar trends in the Navy and Air Force.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has vowed to sort out the issues using additional funding the Pentagon has received in the coming year’s $716 billion defense budget. Still, U.S. military officials have cautioned the incidents are the result of a range of issues that will take time to fix.

On Friday, the Marines said they were working with authorities in South Carolina to secure the crash site and guarantee the safety of all personnel in the surrounding area. The service did not give any details about the pilot or what happened ahead of the crash.

Initially, the Marine Corps was developing its own aircraft to replace the AV-8B Harrier, but in 1994, Congress mandated that the Marine effort be merged with the Air Force/Navy program in order to avoid the higher costs of developing, procuring, and operating and supporting three separate tactical aircraft designs to meet the services’ similar, but not identical, operational needs.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/RL30563.pdf

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....cba1a46d34.jpg

So where does 18 +6 = 17?


Hopefully the AAES has operated without detriment to the pilot.

Marham jets grounded yet?


"who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation remained underway"

Quite sinister......unauthorised or just telling porkies ?

A U.S. military official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation remained underway, said the Marine Corps initially classified the crash as a Class A mishap, which is defined as an incident resulting in the complete destruction of the plane, more than $2 million in damage or the fatality or permanent total disability of the crew.

We're in trouble when flacks demand anonymity when stating the bleeding obvious.

Let's hope it was not Pilot Error....otherwise that Gyrene has just enlisted for Life if he has to reimburse the Guvmint for the loss.

Is it only the B variant which has been beset with trouble? If so, I wonder if the RAF will feel more compelled to buy 90 F-35As to complete the order and at a cheaper unit cost!

FB

You know what caused the loss of this aircraft then?

Please do tell us.

I've no idea I'm sure you'll be utterly surprised to hear. I simply asked if there was a trend affecting the B and not the other two, it could be a common fault or it could be simple bad luck! That's the extent of my technical knowledge, but you sound like you have far greater insight! Could it be that there is a problem, yet to be determined, affecting the drive shaft for the great rotating dustbin which hoovers up internal capacity and re-shapes the airframe? I don't know.

FB

F-35As couldn't operate from QNLZ and PWLS so hardly a starter.

Over 320 F-35s have been built to date. So far, they have clocked up more than 130,000 flying hours. One F-35B has now crashed.

F-35B is certainly the most complex version but it seems somewhat premature to ask whether a single crash constitutes being "beset with trouble" or signifies "a trend", especially as we won't know the cause of the crash until it is reported.

To put the F-35B accident rate in perspective, 337 Harrier AV-8Bs have been built and this is its crash record according to Wikipedia:

Fod. I think we can all agree that the Harrier wouldn't get off the drawing boards today..

Let's wait and see what the jets capabilities are after the 2023 deliveries commence [providing there are no more slippage to the program ] and see if the RAF decide to drop the B for the longer ranged and vastly more capable A...