Someone said it was never a dogfighter, all I did was provide both sides.
Did you read the piece where he said it was actually done on the ground(simulator) not in the air.
VTOL & 3D veyctored thrust removed from the XF-35. The first a requirement for UK ship bourne use, when the order was placed.
When the manufacturer of a piece designed to help save the pilot, has to start putting a 11 stone limit as a maximum weight then a minimum weight limit of five pounds less, there's a problem. Given their seat was designed for the aircraft.
Yeah I did notice when I saw the headline of the piece that it was a simulator - do you think that makes a difference?
VTOL isn't a requirement, SVOTL is. F35, like Harrier can take off vertically,
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zW28Mb1YvwY
...but it does so with little or no payload so is operationally useless, just like Harrier. That's why both were designed to operate from carrier decks with a ski ramp. Both F35 and Harrier can and do land vertically - F35 with a fully automated system, Harrier by the seat of the pilot's pants (which killed a lot of USMC pilots).
Thrust vectoring is what allows SVOTL and is seen here -
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRgcC9eqEJg
and being used lo land vertically here
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7cAmCCmObw
Sorry, I don't know what you mean by 3D thrust vectoring.
Regarding the ejection seat -
Martin Baker (Hall 4 Stand G110) says that a solution to a safety problem with the F-35 ejection seat is two-thirds of the way through a testing program. Lt. General Chris Bogdan, the F-35 program executive officer, said last week that the proposed fixes will meet all F-35 requirements.
http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-n...3/martin-baker-has-fix-f-35-seat-safety-issue
There was no maximum weight limit. They identified issues with pilots under 165lb and said it was unacceptably dangerous below 136lbs. This meant that one pilot in the USAF couldn't fly it, a woman. I would venture that there are very few pilots in any air force weighing less than 11 1/2 st and, as we have seen, only one in the entire USAF weighing less than 9 1/2 st. The issue was caused by the helmet btw, not the plane. The helmet is packed with sensors and quite heavy. The force of a 14G ejection magnifies the helmet's weight from 5lb to 70lb - which could cause anything from a neck strain to fracture. The new seat will have restraints that will pull the helmet upright and into a safe position on ejection. So as you can see, not exactly an insurmountable problem.