The Official "Jet Planes Are Effin' Boss" Thread

[G.Irish]

Oh, and the USMC wanted the F35C because their harriers are older than moses and they want a new VTOL/STOL fighter. Not sure what they need it for but you know, they never get any cool toys anyway so whatever.

fuck off USMC, you just got the osprey. which likewise was overbudget unreliable and questionable utility (they sure did look cool as shit flying though)
VTOL is a joke and Im no battlefield general but I doubt there is much actual realized strategic advantage to a whizbang stealthjet that fucking hovers. thats like chrome spinners of the jet world.

I think the USMC aviation requirements have basically ruined two major projects.

One of the major flaws of the V-22 was introduced because it was required to be able to fit on an amphibious carrier with it's nacelles folded. That not only introduced problems with getting it folded properly, but it also necessitated smaller than optimal rotors. With smaller rotors they needed the engines to run harder to provide the same amount of lift, which led to heat issues. Put all of that together and you end up with an aircraft that has killed quite a few people in accidents, and has gone way over budget. Granted, rotary wing aircraft are dangerous in the first place and helos like the Chinook had a bunch of crashes in testing too.

Problem with the JSF is again the V/STOL requirement. Had they just stuck to the Navy and Air Force variants it would've been fine. As Rex said, where does the Marine Corps ever go that the Navy doesn't go with them? Marine Corps close air support could be met by Navy strike aircraft rather than spending billions of dollars on the F-35B and jeopardizing the entire JSF program.

And once again the Dept of Defense hasn't learned from our previous mistakes with military aircraft procurement. By trying to make something that performs a bunch of different and disparate roles, you end up with an aircraft that excels at none of them. The JSF program is essentially too big to fail at this point because we've tied the future Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps air power to this one fucking plane.