F-35B Exceeds STOVL Thrust Requirement

FORT WORTH, Texas: The F-35B Lightning II short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant has demonstrated during testing that it produces excess vertical thrust - more than required to carry out its missions. The tests, conducted on a specially instrumented "hover pit," also validated the performance of aircraft software, controls, thermal management, STOVL-system hardware and other systems.
"The performance level measured was absolutely exceptional," said J.D. McFarlan, Lockheed Martin F-35 Air Vehicle lead. "We demonstrated 41,100 pounds of vertical thrust against our requirement of 40,550 pounds. This means we will deliver excellent margin for the vertical landing and short takeoff performance we've committed to our STOVL customers," he said. Those customers include the U.S. Marine Corps, the United Kingdom's Royal Navy and Royal Air Force, and the Italian Navy and Air Force.

The F-35B is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney F135 engine driving a Rolls-Royce lift fan. The F135 is the most powerful engine ever flown in a jet fighter.
During hover-pit testing, the aircraft is anchored to a metal grate 14 feet above a sloped concrete floor, separating the jet from ground effect and enabling it to simulate free-air flight. Sensors measure thrust and the aircraft's response to pilot inputs. The testing also demonstrates control of the doors associated with the STOVL propulsion system: engine auxiliary inlet, fan inlet, fan exit, roll posts, and doors that open to enable the Rolls-Royce three-bearing swivel duct to articulate and vector engine thrust. In other tests, metal plates are installed atop the hover-pit grate, enabling engineers to observe and chart the outflow of gases from the propulsion system.
The testing demonstrates functional operation of all systems required for vertical flight, and measures the installed forces and moments on the aircraft during STOVL operations. The hover-pit tests are the final series of ground tests before airborne STOVL testing begins.
"We've demonstrated critical performance such as inlet pressure recovery, pitching moment, rolling and yawing moment, effective vector angles of the exhaust, and control-input response time," said Doug Pearson, vice president of the F-35 Integrated Test Force. "Each of these measurements correlates extremely well with our computer models. The outstanding STOVL performance gives us plenty of confidence to begin in-flight transitions to STOVL-mode flight and ultimately our first vertical landing at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md., this summer."
The F-35B is the first aircraft to combine stealth with short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) capability and supersonic speed. The F-35 is a supersonic, multi-role, 5th generation stealth fighter. Three variants derived from a common design, developed together and using the same sustainment infrastructure worldwide, will replace at least 13 types of aircraft for 11 nations initially, making the Lightning II the most cost-effective fighter program in history.
Headquartered in Bethesda, Md., Lockheed Martin is a global security company that employs about 146,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services. The corporation reported 2008 sales of $42.7 billion.

Pakistani JF-17 A Thunder OR A Blunder

Pakistan has witnessed new defense acquisitions in this decade than any other, and in the center of it all is the new fighter which was designed by China with partial funding from Pakistan. It is formally known as JF-17 Thunder. When the fighter was in development, Pakistani online communities were jumping with excitement comparing it with its arch rival India’s modern combatants Su-30MKI, Mig-29S & Mirage-2000H. There were claims of it featuring western Radars and long range missiles, & Chinese ordering some due to its superior capabilities. But the reality is far from it. China having spent significant amount of money into a fighter which it is never going to use, most probably forced Pakistan to accept its avionics to offset some its development costs. Chinese who are known for their self reliance first and quality next, are further downgrading JF-17s capabilities with their poorly copy-pirated avionics. Along with their dubious weapons, any chance of JF

Pakistani F-16s Shoot Down RAF Eurofighter Typhoons During Air Combat Exercises In Turkey

Pakistani pilots flying modernised versions of the 1970s-vintage F-16 Falcon fighter have beaten the RAF's brand-new Eurofighter Typhoon superfighters during air combat exercises in Turkey, according to a Pakistani officer. Analysis: The RAF Typhoon, formerly known as the Eurofighter, should nonetheless have been vastly superior in air-to-air combat whether BVR or close in within visual range (WVR). The cripplingly expensive, long-delayed Eurofighter was specifically designed to address the defects of its predecessor the Tornado F3 – famously almost useless in close-in, dogfighting-style air combat. The Typhoon was meant to see off such deadly in-close threats as Soviet "Fulcrums" and "Flankers" using short-range missiles fired using helmet-mounted sight systems: such planes were thought well able to beat not just Tornados but F-16s in close fighting, and this expectation was borne out after the Cold War when the Luftwaffe inherite

India Planned Attack On Pak Navy Mehran Base To Kill Chinese Engineers

The terrorist attack on Karachi's Mehran Naval Station on May 22 was conceived and launched by India with the primary objective of killing the Chinese engineers present there, a Pakistani newspaper has claimed, citing 'informed sources'. Four to six Taliban terrorists had entered PNS Mehran on May 22, destroying two maritime surveillance aircraft and killing ten military personnel during their 17-hour siege of the naval air base. "India is the only country in the region that feels troubled by the Pakistan Navy, which had awfully beaten the Indian Navy in Operation Dwarka of 1965. Since then, it has been an earnest desire of India to harm the Pakistan Navy but it was perhaps not possible on the battle front, hence it struck the PNS Mehran," The News quoted sources as saying.

ASIAN DEFENCE

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