Jump Jet: Flying the F-35B simulator

written by Dave Unwin | August 16, 2018
An F-35 takes off from USS America, 1 November 2016
An F-35 takes off from USS America, 1 November 2016

Hovering slowly and precisely along the taxiway I couldn’t help but be reminded of the time I flew a Harrier T.Mk10. I’d thought that the Harrier was an incredible flying machine, but the F-35 is something else!

In fact, as soon as I sat down onto the Martin-Baker Mk16 ejection seat it was immediately apparent that the F-35’s cockpit is unlike that of any other fighter I’ve flown. Of course, I should qualify that observation by making it clear that although I’ve been lucky enough to fly about a dozen different fighters and fighter trainers, powered by piston, turboprop and jet-engines, I am not a fighter pilot.

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Comments (6)

  • Allan

    says:

    The last ever unmanned fighter eh, I doubt it. Technology hasn`t yet got to the point of eradicating the pilot from the cockpit. It seems that history is repeating from the fifties when manned aircraft were going to be superseded by missiles and unmanned fighters. Here we are a half century later and we still have humans in the cockpit.

  • Simon

    says:

    Can you perform maneuvers that would be considered ‘bad’ by the computer?

    Is the computer limiting your potential movements sub-optimal in a jet fighter? Obviously you dont want to make a hard landing or a stall – but maybe they’d be necessary at points?

    • Bob

      says:

      No, the only thing you can do without he computer stoping you is eject

  • PAUL

    says:

    I’m just worried about all those lines of software codes!! Throw in a couple more good measure!!

  • nino

    says:

    computer code will be the weakest link

  • Arlene

    says:

    I couldn’t resist commenting. Veryy well written!

Comments are closed.

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