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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

#331

Post by btgeekboy »

chankstein38 wrote: post #321

It may be naive to ask this but... can I get a tail number? I'm not 100% sure these would have one I could look up on flightradar but a national post asking people to help find their plane would be way more useful with a little more info about the actual aircraft. We know it was "Sunday afternoon" over South Carolina somewhere but if we had some "last known location" info or something this might be solvable with some…

With all due respect, I would hope that anything you could do with ADSB-out data is something that the US military has already tried.

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

#332

Post by 0xffff2 »

woodruffw wrote: post #86
IAmGraydon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The US military absolutely does not have total ground radar across the entire country. (And even if it did, radar is not magic. If the plane is at the bottom of a murky lake, then no amount of radar or satellite imagery is going to find it.)

>And even if it did, radar is not magic. If the plane is at the bottom of a murky lake, then no amount of radar or satellite imagery is going to find it.

The purpose of the radar would not be to see the plane at the bottom of a lake, but to provide a flight path after the ejection. If they had radar coverage, they should be able to see either where it ejected with an unstable flight path that put it within a fairly small circle of the ejection or on a stable flight path that gives them a more or less straight line to search along.

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

#333

Post by qingcharles »

dctoedt wrote: post #281
robarr wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“The Caterpillar Club is an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft. After authentication by the parachute maker, applicants receive a membership certificate and a distinctive lapel pin. The nationality of the person whose life was saved by parachute and ownership of the aircraft are not factors in determining qualification for membership; anybody whose…

Brought back memories of my dad's "induction" into the Caterpillar Club in 1962. When we cleaned out and sold my folks' house, I took a picture of his framed membership certificate; he often wore the lapel pin on civilian sport-coat lapels. https://www.commondraft.org/Caterpillar-Club-certificate.png

Amazing. Thank you for that. Do you exist because he had an ejection seat?

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

#334

Post by GhostWhisperer »

Fluorescence wrote: post #260
ggambetta wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess I don't watch enough spy movies, but... how do you use a not-really-missing jet to flush out an intelligence leak?

I'm delighted you ask because I watch too many. You crash an end-of-life trainer dressed up as an F35 in a carefully chosen site with no natural foot traffic. The FBI then sits in a bush and arrests everyone that turns up. The F35 is the prime intelligence target for Russia before it gets in Ukrainian hands so they might risk some of their most valuable "illegals" i.e. the long-term embedded agents with flawless iden…

don't let a crisis go to waste

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

#335

Post by chankstein38 »

btgeekboy wrote: post #331
chankstein38 wrote: post #321

It may be naive to ask this but... can I get a tail number? I'm not 100% sure these would have one I could look up on flightradar but a national post asking people to help find their plane would be way more useful with a little more info about the actual aircraft. We know it was "Sunday afternoon" over South Carolina somewhere but if we had some "last known location" info or something this might be solvable with some…

With all due respect, I would hope that anything you could do with ADSB-out data is something that the US military has already tried.

That's my assumption as well but I'd have assumed that'd be the case with basically anything except on-site search parties (though I'd hope they could do that as well haha). I'm with you though!

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

#336

Post by dctoedt »

qingcharles wrote: post #333
dctoedt wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Brought back memories of my dad's "induction" into the Caterpillar Club in 1962. When we cleaned out and sold my folks' house, I took a picture of his framed membership certificate; he often wore the lapel pin on civilian sport-coat lapels. https://www.commondraft.org/Caterpillar-Club-certificate.png

Amazing. Thank you for that. Do you exist because he had an ejection seat?

> Do you exist because he had an ejection seat?

No, I was a little tyke at the time. (The story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33348425)

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

#337

Post by dragonwriter »

cityhall wrote: post #226
xjlin0 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

F-4 Phantom was a great fighter serving US Navy, Marine and Air Force. It equipped with missiles to kill enemies in the beyond visual range, didn't equip internal guns in the first generation because "it shouldn't get into close combat" .....

And the F-15's design slogan was "Not a pound for air to ground". Guess what it's being used for now?

The F-15E Strike Eagle is a different, significantly heavier and higher payload was produced by a separate, later project abd competition from the original air-to-air F-15 (its competitor was thr F-16XL, which would have been the F-16E/F if selected.)

And the F-15EX Eagle II is an even newer aircraft.

The F-15C/D are still air-to-air fighters.

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

#338

Post by throw0101c »

hollerith wrote: post #266
kunwon1 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm no expert on aircraft procurement or government contracts (I'm an engineer who used to work on fighter jets) - that being said, it's my understanding that the F-35 is actually a very successful project, and a very affordable one at that. I haven't got any citations or evidence to present, I could be wrong about all of this, it's a topic I've got only casual knowledge about. A broad overview of my understanding of…

If F-35 is such a failure, how come many countries have chosen to buy it? Consulting this next page, I count 8 countries besides the US that have taken delivery of F-35s, plus many that have ordered it, but not yet taken delivery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning... The UK for example currently has a fleet of 32, and Australia has 50.

> If F-35 is such a failure, how come many countries have chosen to buy it?

What's the alternative? How many other models can be purchased at all?

Canada went through a bunch of drama to find a replacement for the legacy F/A-18s, and the main options were: Eurofighter Typhoon, Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, F-35, and the Saab Gripen.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...

Gripen wasn't in the same league, so we basically have the Typhoon and SuperHornet as other options, and both were at least a decade older with regards to their 'base' design (though there have been further upgrades).

So if you're going to be stuck with a plane for 20+ years, you might as well pick the newest model year.

Personally I'd be happy with the Super Hornets (and thrown in some Growlers) for Canada given "6G" fighters are starting to be designed—basically skipping the "5G" F-35—but Boeing were a bunch of dumbasses when the decision was being made:

* https://www.cnbc.com/2017/09/18/justin-trudeau-says-canada-w...

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

#339

Post by dragonwriter »

snowwrestler wrote: post #328
cityhall wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the F-15's design slogan was "Not a pound for air to ground". Guess what it's being used for now?

Same with the F-16, which started life as a skunkworks project that prioritized dogfighting but is today heavily used for close air support and bombing.

While the skunkworks project and even the initial government Lightweight Fighter project had an air-to-air dogfighting focus, the program under which the F-16 development was conpleted and it was eventually purchased was for a multirole fighter, that wasn't a post-purchase usage evolution.

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

#340

Post by leoh »

btbuildem wrote: post #70

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.

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

There are a number of possibilities you are not considering. Having our adversaries believe that the F35 is unreliable, for example, would be exceptionally useful. Other possibilities include intentionally attempting out-of-spec maneuvers or experimental hardware.

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