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F-35 Lightning II (All Variants)


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Beautiful shots. I may be a little nieve here but wouldnt external pylons hinder the stealth ability of the F-35. I would assume the way they look someone took this into conncideration. I will have the joy of being one of the first to be able to refuel these aircraft when they start to roll into my home town. The Hangers we are building for them are gigantic. Twice the size of our other hangars. Cant wait to see them in action. We are slated to recieve 80 of these aircraft. First of the Marine Corp. they will be replacing our aging fleet of AV-8B Harriers. I also cant wait for the paint jobs that will follow on the tails of these aircraft they are going to look sweet. I already have an idea how some of them are going to look.

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..... wouldnt external pylons hinder the stealth ability of the F-35(?)

Low RCS pods may exist somewhere (although I haven't heard of any), but generally external stuff will only be loaded when a super duper stealth signature isn't a top priority. Same thing holds for the Raptors. But on the Opening Night of a campaign, you can bet they'll be slick and nigh invisible.

Edited by SimFixer
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Sweet thanks for the reply. I figured the shape of them would be of some stealth nature. Man I fear for anyone who is staring down one of these or an

F-22 Raptor. I would not want to be on the reciving ends of either one. Their like the A-10 Warthog to tanks. You dont want to be around to see one comming in because when you see it It's already too late.

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Ok, a few noob questions:

1. What is the centerline pod - recon or some form of external gun?

2. The pylons seem very long. Is there some form of brace at the rear that can mount to the store and provide extra support and a pivot for clean semparation when released? I know F-15s do this.

3. Are the external pylons releasable in flight? Seems like there could be combat situations where you would REALLY need to get full stealth mode back in a hurry.

Thanks, jai5w4 for staring this thread off with these nice pix.

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Ok, a few noob questions:

1. What is the centerline pod - recon or some form of external gun?

It's described as a gun pod by some sources. It looks different than the gun pod drawings they had before.

2. The pylons seem very long. Is there some form of brace at the rear that can mount to the store and provide extra support and a pivot for clean semparation when released? I know F-15s do this.

We don't know yet. The fuel tanks for the F-35 are not yet fully designed.

3. Are the external pylons releasable in flight? Seems like there could be combat situations where you would REALLY need to get full stealth mode back in a hurry.

Yes, but it isn't something you would want to do if you could help it. Those things are expensive, so they won't exactly have a stockpile of extras back at base.

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Looking back at the last ten years and looking forward to any possible opponent, I doubt that stealth is really that important. Libya and Afghanistan had no reasonable air power when push came to shove, same goes for the pirates in Somalia. Iran and Syria could become problematic, but with enough material and Cruise Missiles the airfields can be taken care of. If someone is stupid enough to start something with North Korea, China, Pakistan or India, we are toast anyway, no matter if stealth or not. But of course I am a mere overweight armchair general ;-)

Cheers

Thorsten

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Looking back at the last ten years and looking forward to any possible opponent, I doubt that stealth is really that important. Libya and Afghanistan had no reasonable air power when push came to shove, same goes for the pirates in Somalia. Iran and Syria could become problematic, but with enough material and Cruise Missiles the airfields can be taken care of. If someone is stupid enough to start something with North Korea, China, Pakistan or India, we are toast anyway, no matter if stealth or not. But of course I am a mere overweight armchair general ;-)

There are other threads for discussing the development and usage and ramifications of the F-35. This is for pictures and talking about what we see in the pictures.

--

And in picture news, the best place for F-35 pictures is the Lockheed Martin Flikr site.

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  • 7 months later...

The last two pics TT posted, it looks great. The one before, the fully side-on one, it looks like it got squashed. Like it needs to be stretched out lengthwise a few feet. But its appearance is slowly growing on me...

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TT-

The color on the tails gives some hope of what future CAG birds might look like. It would be a shame if someone in the Navy decided that low-observable had to mean no colors all of the time like they did in the early TPS days.

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Realized I hadn't posted a picture of A model yet! :bandhead2:

6810252914_49d3266477_c.jpg

Painting those panel lines is going to be quite a challenge. I wonder if anyone will come out with a set of masks to make the job a bit easier? At least the F-35 paint doesn't have that nearly impossible to replicate sheen that the F-22 has.

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  • 1 month later...

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