F-35 Delayed After Fourth Prototype Becomes Self-Aware And Has To Be Destroyed

[SJPONeill]

Well, you could argue that they did the Swiss Army knife thing with the F-16 but then they started off simple and added capability over time... the F-35 is starting at hideously complex and getting worse...

[Mike1158]

The sooner we all get politicians who are worth a damn really. If the spec was not changed during development I am sure a well equipped aircraft would already be in service but alas we are left with politicians too open to lobbyists and industry 'friends'. I think we should stick our politicians in an old oil tanker and sink it in the north atlantic to create a new cold water reef. It may not bring us a new aircraft but it would give a heck of a lot of people something to smile about. Would that not be a first?

[Paper Kosmonaut]

Let's just keep with making fun of the aircraft and the industry and not start politics here. This is the comedy stand, remember? (-:
Here's another couple of nice views on things all F-35 and small:


unknown artist, got it from imagefriend.com


Cartoon by Patrick Corrigan / Toronto Star

[Isaac]

Money is the only force of nature that keeps any airplane in the air !!!

Look at the B-2 bomber. Less than 20 aircraft built........

Isaac

[N96HBK]

Originally Posted by Paper Kosmonaut

Let's just keep with making fun of the aircraft and the industry and not start politics here. This is the comedy stand, remember? (-:
Here's another couple of nice views on things all F-35 and small:


unknown artist, got it from imagefriend.com


Cartoon by Patrick Corrigan / Toronto Star

I still think it's a shame.....It is a really cool aircraft....

[Paper Kosmonaut]

In my opinion it's a stubby chubby little bug. It lacks the grace of, say, the YF-23 or even the F22, it doesn't have a good view out of the cockpit like the F-16, It lacks menace. The F-16, the AV8-B and the A-10 look much more like able hunters, killers or fighters than this little piggy.

[murphyaa]

Supposedly, there's a camera in the helmet that let's the pilot see through the plane. Except according to the report, there isn't room in the cockpit to turn his head to see behind him. Hope they have mirrors on it.

[willygoat]

If I recall correctly, the helmet ties into the electro-optical site under the nose of the aircraft. This would give the pilot a view of below and slightly behind. The vast number and type of sensors all over the plane also feed into the helmet to give a synthetic picture of the surrounding battle space.

From the article I read this morning, this system is mostly up and running as planned. There are a couple features that will be added to the newest version of the block 2B software. Which, incidentally, the Marines will NOT have when they go IOC (Initial Operating Capacity) by the end of the month as planned.

[murphyaa]

Did they ever fix the glitch with the gun software, or is it still DOA till 2016?

[WVA]

Interesting, and funny replies here, but I would like to know just what "became self aware and had to be destroyed" really means. How does an airplane, in spite of all of it's sophisticated stuff, become "self-aware"? Just some technical jargon, or is this the future of robotic stuff?