The F-35B is the variant of the Joint Strike Fighter for the U.S. Marine Corps, capable of short take-offs and vertical landings for use on amphibious ships or expeditionary airfields to provide air power to the Marine Air-Ground Task Force. The F-35B will replace Marine AV-8B Harriers and F-18 Hornets and is undergoing test and evaluation at NAS Patuxent River prior to delivery to the fleet. In addition to being the first ship to successfully land the F-35B, USS Wasp was also the first ship to host the V-22 Osprey during shipboard trials in October 2007. The F-35B Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) test aircraft BF-2 landed safely on USS Wasp’s (LHD-1) flight deck, the first at sea vertical landing for the Marine Corps’ F-35 JSF version. Below is the video of the landing: The first vertical landing is part of the initial ship trials for the F-35B which started Monday and is expected to last two-weeks. The tests are scheduled to collect data on the aircraft’s ability to perform short take-offs and vertical landings on a ship at sea, as well as determine how the aircraft integrates with the ship’s landing systems, and deck and hangar operations. This test period, the first of three scheduled at-sea test periods over the course of the development program, will also collect environmental data on the deck through added instrumentation to measure the F-35B’s impact to flight deck operations. Here is a nice shot of the F-35B coming in for the landing: More photos of the historic trial after the Jump See our other posts on the F-35: So How Much Does an F-35 Cost? Rebutting Aviation Week on the Actual Cost of an F-35 Flying the F-35 Eglin Gets the F-35 F-35 on a Catapult Why the F-35 is Important
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/WIpVUCcNubo/the-first-f-35b-landing-at-sea-on-the-uss-wasp-1.html
Posted
Oct 04 2011, 02:14 AM
by
BLACKFIVE