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| USA F-35 (Click to Enlarge) |
By Bill Sweetman
The U.S. defense secretary is on his way to Beijing. Time to unveil a new stealth fighter...
Short take-off and vertical landing has been one of the two driving requirements behind the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter design, the other being stealth.
STOVL dictated the single engine, and the STOVL solution chosen for the F-35 demands a big vertical bay behind the cockpit, and a main engine located unusually far forward, to keep the driveshaft length within reason and to put the lift-cruise nozzle in the right longitudinal location for balance.
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| China J31/F60 (Click to Enlarge) |
This constrains the weapon-bay volume and shape, and effectively subdivides the bays into four zones -- two AAM bays and two heavy store sections. As Amy Butler reports in Aviation Week & Space Technology this week, too, the weapon bays, wrapped around the engine, get hot and noisy.
If you ever wondered what a JSF might look without those constraints, we now have a live, physical example.
Read thye full story at Aviation Week