In the Hi-tech whizzbangery of RICO infested defence budgets designed to kill the West, everyone forgets that the whole VTOL malarky was the province of the poor and destitute. Now adays the warped concept is compounded by repeating the 1930s mistake of impoverished banker bankrupted societies feeding their soon to be enemies.
F35 is a weapon system achieving its aims of destroying Wetern TacAir. US Marines are going to be in big trouble should they be sent back to defend big Fruit's plantations when ChiComm 6G robots are overhead.
Great comment on ELP.
Eric Palmer blog: Lacking confidence: November? Interesting. It was supposed to be October. They don't sound confident either. Carrier cat and trap work should only verify w...
"Also missing from Pratt & Whitney --- an explanation of how the F135 was supposedly able to produce it's claimed 43000lbs of thrust by 2005, when the F-22's F119 engine (an F135 with a clamshell nozzle) had only just been qualified to produce 35000lbs of thrust in 2003, despite having been in development span of over 17 years.
Yet, an extra 8000lbs of thrust magically appears in the F135 only 3 years later.
The Saturn/Lyulka AL-31 family of engines also raises doubts that an 8000lb increase in thrust in just 3 years is possible. In 1981, the Al-31F produced 27700lbs of thrust; it's latest iteration, the AL-41 of 2010, produces 33000lbs of thrust. The GE F404-400 produced 16000lbs of thrust on it's introduction in 1978; it's most recent development, the F414-400 of 1993, produces 22000lbs of thrust. The Klimov RD-33 made it's debut in 1976, with 18000lbs of thrust; by 2001 it had been developed into the RD-33MK, with 20000lbs of thrust. The GE F110-100 debuted in 1984, with 28000lbs of thrust; the current F110-132, introduced in 2003, produces a whopping 32000lbs of thrust.
Now consider the pounds of thrust gained per-year of development for these engines, and see if something doesn't look right;
F100: 176
F110: 210
F404~414: 400
AL-31~41: 182
RD-33: 80
F119~135: 2666
F100: 176
F110: 210
F404~414: 400
AL-31~41: 182
RD-33: 80
F119~135: 2666
Somehow, we're supposed to believe that the F135 gained 8000lbs of thrust from it's immediate progenitor, after only 3 years of R&D, when the F110-132 that took 29 years to gain HALF as much extra from the F110-100. Also, there's a bridge in Brooklyn I've got up for sale."
