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F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

thedrive.com

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Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#61

Post by kashunstva »

gonzo41 wrote: post #53
542458 wrote: post #50

I’m surprised that a crashing F-35 wouldn’t generate enough fire and smoke to be easily detected.

It could fly until it finds ocean, runs out of fuel and then darts in. My god think of the bill.

If the plane is in trim (does the F35 even have manual trim?) and/or on autopilot, I can see a long glide to somewhere with a stable flight path, at least until the loss of thrust due to fuel exhaustion leads to an aerodynamic stall. But in of these circumstances, there would have been no need for the pilot to eject. Strange indeed.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#62

Post by runarberg »

Fluorescence wrote: post #56

This sounds too ridiculous to be true. I'd be more inclined to believe that it's a gambit to flush out an intelligence leak rather than an inability to find their own $160M plane.

Incompetence is positively correlated with salary and responsibility. The more money you handle on your job the likelier you are to be incompetent.

It comes as no surprise to me that people responsible for these machines of war are more incompetent than you or me.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#63

Post by giarc »

giantg2 wrote: post #55
yabones wrote: post #47

Have they said whether the transponder was active on the jet? They usually have the ADSB beacon live when flying near airports, but if it was turned off it would be a bit trickier to find. Also, if the retroreflector wasn't extended it might be hard for active radar to track it as well. Worst case scenario would be if it was in "full stealth" mode -- that would be the situation where we discover that NORAD air defens…

They should be able to track gross location on radar. The stealth capabilities are mostly focused on thwarting precise location and missile guidance radars. The issue here is finding the precise crash site. General location should be known. Trying to find it under the tree canopy could be more challenging depending on how rural it is.

I think they do have the general location, they keep mentioning two lakes near the base. So I suspect it's at the bottom of one of them, although then it's odd they are asking for public help finding them.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#64

Post by giarc »

kashunstva wrote: post #61
gonzo41 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could fly until it finds ocean, runs out of fuel and then darts in. My god think of the bill.

If the plane is in trim (does the F35 even have manual trim?) and/or on autopilot, I can see a long glide to somewhere with a stable flight path, at least until the loss of thrust due to fuel exhaustion leads to an aerodynamic stall. But in of these circumstances, there would have been no need for the pilot to eject. Strange indeed.

It's the most advanced plane the military has. You would think that an eject would trigger some additional communications or allow remote control of the jet.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#65

Post by IAmGraydon »

runarberg wrote: post #62
Fluorescence wrote: post #56

This sounds too ridiculous to be true. I'd be more inclined to believe that it's a gambit to flush out an intelligence leak rather than an inability to find their own $160M plane.

Incompetence is positively correlated with salary and responsibility. The more money you handle on your job the likelier you are to be incompetent. It comes as no surprise to me that people responsible for these machines of war are more incompetent than you or me.

> The more money you handle on your job the likelier you are to be incompetent.

And your source for this data is…?

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#66

Post by flangola7 »

sschueller wrote: post #32
RetroTechie wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd think there's clear procedures for pilot of such a craft? If x occurs & can't be fixed by doing y or z, then eject. > Though it it continued flying I would expect it to be on ADS-B. This is a military aircraft. Depending on its mission, transponders may or may not be enabled. What did surprise me: if a 2-plane mission, why didn't the other jet follow the now-empty one? As a opposed to landing right after. Low on…

With all the software issues how do we know the plane didn't just randomly eject the pilot due to some buffer overflow...

Hopefully that isn't a networked system. It should be physical action only.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#67

Post by IAmGraydon »

Fluorescence wrote: post #56

This sounds too ridiculous to be true. I'd be more inclined to believe that it's a gambit to flush out an intelligence leak rather than an inability to find their own $160M plane.

It’s definitely BS. Transponders aside, the US has radar and near real-time satellite imagery of every square inch of American territory. There is a zero percent chance they don’t know where this plane is.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#68

Post by gonzo41 »

kashunstva wrote: post #61
gonzo41 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could fly until it finds ocean, runs out of fuel and then darts in. My god think of the bill.

If the plane is in trim (does the F35 even have manual trim?) and/or on autopilot, I can see a long glide to somewhere with a stable flight path, at least until the loss of thrust due to fuel exhaustion leads to an aerodynamic stall. But in of these circumstances, there would have been no need for the pilot to eject. Strange indeed.

I heard a story about an FA-18 where the pilot passed out, suffocated and died, and the jet just flew until it ran out gas and went down in the ocean.

We know the JSF is a giant expensive computer. I wonder what code is in the exception block for when the plane is working but the pilot leaves. Maybe it does just try and gently crash somewhere. It's more surprising it didn't have some sort of phone home, become a drone, style fall back mechanism. I certainly think that'll be on the Jira board next sprint.

Re: F-35 can’t be found after pilot ejected

#70

Post by btbuildem »

An 80's movie dream is playing out for some rural kids, where they stumble upon a smouldering high-tech wreckage and as they explore it, men in suits pour out of black SUVs and talk to them in taciturn ways.

Seriously though, these jets sound terribly overpriced for how unreliable they seem to be.

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