F-35 Carrier Test USS Wasp.

[TomcatViP]

There is a secondary intake aft of the lift fan "barn door" intake for the F135 engine that is opened for the vertical flight regime.

They are now calling the barn door a chevy 57 like convertible roof.

The lift fan duct geometry has necessited a great amount of rework since the old straight design. It's now like some kind a S-shape although not really making a "S"

The shaft transmitting the power from the F135 to the lift fan is a masterpiece of engineering. I thought at the time that it was polygonal due to high torque transmitted and the difficult transient regime (sry don't hve the right word in English in mind) but it's not.

It seems to be a fairly classical circular geo with planetary gears and a constantly cooled clutch that would make shy any engineer aboard the Star Treck Enterprise.

Regarding the skin thickness I think you are right Herbs107. But keep in mind that teh cicilian industry is also converting to carbon skins. It's an all new world for the maintenance and the guys ard there would hve to work with new methodologies (robotics ?).


Thx for sharing this nice vid

Regarding UK choice for teh F35, I won't be surprised if in a decade the politics revert the move back from CToL to VTOL. We alrdy hve seen that with the F4 The worst of teh story was the selling of the entire Joint harrier force for 35M$.