F35 Crew Chief busting some myths

I recently saw this posted while flipping through my feed or whatever the fuck it is, and just had to read this fantastical shit show. About half way through, I started responding to each and every point presented by Mr. BAD EGG, whom, it would appear, is the foremost expert in the F35 JSF. So, ladies and gentlemen, if you would be so kind as to lend me some of your time, I would like to welcome you to the Shit Show!

So here Mr. BAD EGG starts out with some fact legitimate facts, Skydive, Powerglide, and Starscream are, in fact, transformers that turn into the F16, A10, and the F22 respectively. But he fucks up calling the A10 a fighter, which I’ll chalk up to him being over zealous in shitting on my beautiful princess (see Princess Esmat od-Dowleh of Iran)

He continually uses “supposed” like there aren’t 3 production models, one for each branch mentioned, and multiple F35A squadrons that have already replaced their F16Cs with F35As. Calling the F35B VTOL is like calling the B52 a fighter jet, it’s not even close and it was never meant to be; The B model is STOVL (short take off, vertical landing) and has always meant to be STOVL. Apparently, in the age of touchscreens, putting one on a plane is just too much for Mr. BAD EGG.

It would seem he also has an issue with the stealth coating (or low observable as it’s officially called, and from here on will be referred to as LO), making the outrageous claims that not only does it peel right off at >0% humidity, but also must be climate controlled at all times and repainted after every flight, which, on all accounts, is completely false. The LO coating on the F35 is incredible resilient, and very rarely has be to repaired. The claim of climate controlled hangers is, while a really nice sounding fantasy for other Crew Chiefs and myself, just that, a fantasy. Our hangers are far from climate controlled, and on all bases that I’ve been to, from swampy Eglin to the deserts at Luke, sit under open air, cloth over hangs.

The claim of heat sensitive fuel is utter shit, as the F35 uses standard NATO jet fuels, like JP8. So there is no need for crazy special pain on the fuel trucks, they use the same trucks they used on the F16s and probably even F4s that came before.

The STOVL engine in the F35 uses absolutely 0 fuel, and does not need air refueling after a short take off. Instead, the Rolls Royce LiftSystem creates 20,000 lbs of thrust using a simple crank shaft attached the Pratt and Whitney F135 engine that puts out an additional 43,000 lbs of thrust. This output makes the F135 the most powerful fighter jet engine in the world.

There is fuel tanks behind the seat of the pilot, and the only “tank” of oxygen on the F35 is a small Backup Oxygen Supply bottle (BOS bottle for short) next to the seat. The reason is the F35 uses a onboard oxygen generation system, removing the need for oxygen tanks entirely. In the rare occasion that the pilot need to use the BOS bottle (I’ve never seen it happen), he will immediately turn around and land at the nearest friendly runway.

Honestly, that first paragraph doesn’t need correcting, it makes it sound bad ass, and it is! 360° view through your aircraft due to a suite of cameras located around the aircraft. These cameras, along with a imperial fuck ton (imperial because this is an ‘Merican aircraft) of sensors feed the pilot and the plane a constant stream of information.

The software and touchscreen don’t crash. Not even a debate, that shit just doesn’t happen anymore. I’ll admit that it probably did in the early testing stages, like in 200fucking6, but was fixed almost immediately because that would be life threatening to the pilot. Let me reiterate a point from the previous picture, the oxygen generation system doesn’t just “stop working”. The targeting software isn’t really my job, but if that shit bugs or if they Head Mounted Display gets fucked up specs would have a lot more work than they do, because that shit would be disastrous in a real life scenario, which is what we all train for.

Honestly, if that LO melting thing happened, it was way before me, but that shit doesn’t happen now, and there’s rubberized LO on the turkey feathers of the augmenter. Again weather is Mr. BAD EGGs concern, but rest assured, the cameras on the F35 don’t fog up, because they can get hot as fuck when the engine is on.

I have no idea what happened with the whole dogfight situation, but I’m assuming they still had the radar emitters on that the FAA requires us to have in the US. As for the maneuverability issues, fuck, maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, maybe it’s just a shit pilot, maybe it’s the G limits that were a lot tighter back then, fuck if I know, man.
Now, this trillion dollar cost thing I do know something about! This trillion dollars is the estimated cost of development and procurement from the mid 1990s all the way to the early 2070s. That’s almost 80+ years, which makes a trillion seem a little more tame, right?

Again, the dogfight is something to ask a pilot, but the mobility is entirely wrong, he has more than enough room to look around and move his head. That may be due to us being on the 3rd generation of helmet for this aircraft and it is considerably smaller and lighter than previous generations.

So wing drop, that was a problem for a time, but never bad enough to cause a crash. Additionally, the wing drop problem was fixed back in 2013 and is no longer an issue. That’s the thing about development, if shit doesn’t work, they fix it, all the problems this dudes bringing up are developmental shit, and they’re worked out.

I can’t speak for generals, but the F35 isn’t a “top gun [fantasy]” aircraft, if it was they’d be pushing for F22s which is the dedicated air superiority fighter. Additionally, he defeats his own argument by saying that dogfights aren’t going to happen anymore, yet calls the F35 for a single poor performance against an F16.

Now, chopping up A10s is a serious accusation which I have never heard anything of, and can’t find anything about in any legitimate news organization, and as a result, I am labeling unfounded.

I woke up in BEAST MODE! Beast mode is a real thing, the F35 has 11 hard points for mounting up to 18,000 lbs of ordinance, 2,000 more than the A10 and 1,000 more than the F16. 3 of those hard points can be configured to mount external fuel tanks, but is generally deemed unnecessary. So his claim of beast mode being straight up lying are, again, completely unfounded.

Ejection seats are going to cause injuries to everyone, supposedly you actually lose like half an inch each time you eject and they will permanently ground you after 3 ejections. With the new 3rd generation of helmets the 23% chance of death has lowered down to 0% due to its lighter weight.

That brings us to an end, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you’ve enjoyed my Shit Show, good night!

Cat tax, her name is Trixie.

Edit: added credentials https://imgur.com/a/3jTVxzc