Comment by lotsofpulp
4 years ago
> The congressional interrogations of Lockheed Likely help ensure that the f-35 works as advertised
I am under the impression the f-35 will never deliver what was advertised since it was a sales effort based on fantasy physics. It probably is delivering the actual intended effect, which is transferring money from taxpayers to military contractors and job votes for certain senators.
Which makes you wonder, how badly are the secret fighter jet programs intended to compete with the F-35 or similar stealth planes actually going?
The MIG-25's capabilities were famously misinterpreted by western intelligence, resulting in the creation of the F-15 Eagle. Undoubtedly similar confusions resulted in the F-22 program through the 1980s.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25#Wester...
> I am under the impression the f-35 will never deliver what was advertised since it was a sales effort based on fantasy physics.
It will deliver, though. Because the physics don't matter nearly as much - unless you are talking about radar signature physics. Aircraft today are mobile ordnance delivery platforms. Those Top Gun air to air stunts? Unlikely to happen. Supermaneuvarability stuff doesn't matter at all if you are getting hit before you even know the enemy is there. Or you might know, because one F35 has the radar on, only to get hit from a completely different aircraft that's getting the data link.
What does matter is getting in undetected (while coordinating with your peers), delivering your payload, getting back out. Or doing recon, etc.
They are most likely talking about radar signature physics. Stealth to lower frequency radar requires physically implausible materials. So does the supposedly undetectable radar of the F-35. Plenty of physics-bending specs.
> They are most likely talking about radar signature physics. Stealth to lower frequency radar requires physically implausible materials.
But then the question moves to: what are the weaknesses of those lower frequency radars, and can those be exploited to restore the advantage of the stealth features? The admittedly not-great Wikipedia page about low frequency radar seems to indicate it has a lot of disadvantages like being difficult to transport, prone to noise, and not being precise enough for targeting.
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Can you be more specific? What about the F35 was based on "fantasy physics"?
That it was possible to make an all in one plane for all branches of military for all purposes, and have verticals take off and landing for the Marines. And have some type of 360 degree futuristic digital heads-up display?
I did not bother with reading into all the details, I just know there have been article after article about the plane failing to reach expectation after expectation for basically my whole adult life now.
Not to mention that drones render human piloted jets much less necessary or useful.
> That it was possible to make an all in one plane for all branches of military for all purpose
It's possible. They ended up achieving less commonality than predicted, and costs were higher than predicted. No fantasy physics here.
> and have verticals take off and landing for the Marines
Works fine. Although they will probably not take off vertically and will instead do a short takeoff. Same thing the Harrier did. No fantasy physics.
> And have some type of 360 degree futuristic digital heads-up display
They do, and it works.
> failing to reach expectation after expectation for basically my whole adult life now
Welcome to cutting edge weapons development. Read some history, you'll find plenty of programs that had similar issues but are successful today.
> Not to mention that drones render human piloted jets much less necessary or useful.
Maybe so. But not today.
>> Can you be more specific? What about the F35 was based on "fantasy physics"?
> That it was possible to make an all in one plane for all branches of military for all purposes, and have verticals take off and landing for the Marines.
That's not so much fantasy physics as it is fantasy product management.
IIRC, the major result of that was that the program cost way more to end up delivering three different planes that cost too much to fill the roles they were supposed to.
> And have some type of 360 degree futuristic digital heads-up display?
That actually seems pretty plausible. IIRC, it's basically see-through VR goggles.