Straight from Lockheed’s mouth, the F-35 will only be allowed “monitored” flight, because the underlying engineering issue hasn’t been fixed:
The F-35 Integrated Power Package is a turbo-machine that provides power to start the engine and generates cooling for the aircraft. The government and contractor engineering teams determined the program could resume developmental test flight operations while the investigation continues. This assessment was made after reviewing data from ground and flight tests which showed, with revised test monitoring procedures governing the IPP, the aircraft can be flown safely.
The root cause investigation indicates that an IPP valve did not function properly. Monitoring of valve position is a mitigating action to allow monitored operations. A permanent resolution is in work.
So they’re just as dangerous as before, says the Pentagon and private contractors, the reason they were grounded in the first place remains, but they can fly anyway. Hmm. “A permanent resolution is in work” doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. [Lockheed Martin]
EckyThump
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 8:16 AM“not too detective ” ?
They’ve pumped so much bloody money into this project now that they can’t afford not to pour more money into it! What a bloody debarkle! #{
Nathan
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 4:13 PMBut who’s watching the detectives?
Evan
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 9:07 AMWas there ever a hi-tech project that came in on time and within its original budget? I don’t believe there is. Essentially this is business as normal. Its what happens when a government asks private enterprise to create a machine for a purpose. The process goes like this:
1. The supplier, believing the government has money to burn, bumps up margins by huge amounts.
2. The government (customer) can’t stop itself from moving the goal posts.
3. Goto step 1.
William
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 9:02 PMSlow down, there, that’s rather simplistic. Lockheed Martin has actually done a pretty good job with the program so far. the main problem is that all the F-35 variants must share at least 80 part commonality. On its own this is a good thing. Problem is that there are immense problems in taking a high performance fighter jet (F-35A/C) and making it fly in the vertical (F-35B). The F-35B is having all kinds of problems tanking off and landing vertically. Every time they make a change to the F-35B in order to make it work, they have to move that change across all the F-35A/C variants, suddenly the whole program has to change. If Lockheed only had to build the F-35A/C variants, it would be a very different story.
Quin
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 9:57 AMSeriously, your reporting on this is getting a bit silly. It should really read..
The F-35 Is Cleared To Fly Again (And Still Not Finished)
The aircraft is a prototype. Expensive, yes. Delayed, yes. But finished? No.
“After electrical problems grounded the entire fleet…”
You’re aware that the ‘entire fleet’ is 13 test aircraft right? And the whole point of test aircraft is to troubleshoot problems to avoid isues with the final production aircraft?
To give some perspective the ‘entire fleet’ the F-35 is going to replace (the F/A-18E/F/G Super Hornet) consists of more than 600 aircraft.
It’s valid to point out the problems with the F-35, but you’re leaving out some pretty key facts.
TSH
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 2:55 PMNice points Quin, puts the news into perspective.
Why oh why didn’t Australia just buy some Eagles? They’re practically the Toyota Camry of the air and they’re fine for what we need!
William
Friday, August 19, 2011 at 8:37 PMThis is a triumph for the F-35 project i say. It shows that the integrated health management system (a major feature of the aircraft) identified a problem before any failure occurred. Furthermore it provides the sensors and controls to allow the aircraft to safely fly even with a design floor.
MotorMouth
Sunday, August 28, 2011 at 11:13 AM@ TSH, AFAIK they aren’t building F-15′s any more so we couldn’t buy them if we wanted to. In any event, it is not suited to our needs as it is not designed to drop bombs and we need a multi-role aircraft. It is also not capable against the Sukhoi fighters most of our potential enemies are tooling up with. We need a state-of-the-art fighter and the F-35 will be a great acquisition for us.
To add to Quin’s comments, not only will the F-35 replace the US Navy/Marine Corps F/A-18 fleets, it will also replace the Marine’s Harrier’s in certain roles, as well as all the USAF’s F-16 and A-10 aircraft. The F-35 will be an immensely capable aircraft once development is complete, used by our allies all around the world. We’d be barking mad not to be involved.
Robert
Thursday, April 26, 2012 at 1:10 AMYes Sireeeee ! Those guys at Lockheed Martin are really, really smart . They got just about everybody in the world lined up to buy an aircraft that is really a white elephant and a pig-in -a -poke all rolled into one. Nobody knows how much it is going to cost, how well it is going to work, what it is going to cost to maintain or when it is going to be available. What a great way to do business- if you can get away with it.