F-35A begins drag chute certification

The process of certifying a drag chute for the Norwegian F-35A began yesterday when AF-02, modified to carry a drag chute, landed at Eielson AFB in Alaska. In addition to drag chute testing, the aircraft will also certify the entire F-35A fleet to land on a runway with a Runway Condition Reading (RCR) of 7. An RCR of 23 is completely dry, and an RCR of 5 is landing on ice. Currently the F-35 is certified to land on an RCR of 12. Eielson tries to keep their runway at 12, but during winter it drops below that, meaning that right now, the F-35 couldn't operate all winter.

An F-35A Lightning II landed at Eielson AFB Oct 12 to participate in testing several aspects of the fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

This test’s purpose has two major outcomes: certifying the Norwegian drag-chute and demonstrating that the entire fleet of F-35As are capable of landing at a runway condition reading (RCR) of 7.

The RCR scale is based on how wet and dry each runway is. A RCR 23 is considered a dry runway while an RCR 5 is compared to landing on ice.

“The F-35A is currently certified to land at an RCR of 12,” said Capt. Daniel Campbell, the 354th Fighter Wing F-35 PIO director of mission support. “This test is important to the base because it will help certify the F-35A to operate at an RCR of 7. The 354th Civil Engineer Squadron and 354th Operations Support Squadron try to keep our runway at an RCR of 12 or better during the harsh winters, but often are below that. We need the lower RCR certification to ensure the F-35A can operate throughout our winters.”

www.eielson.af.mil...

With as much money as we have thrown at this thing, you would think it would have inertial dampeners and anti-gravity technology.

a reply to: Zaphod58 Very interesting to say the least. What platforms can land on ice?

a reply to: Zaphod58 And a follow up does landing on such a cold runway cause or affect the stealth attributes of the jet?

a reply to: Allaroundyou

The Norwegians currently use F-16s. You can pretty much drag chute anything and give it the ability to land on ice. Alaska currently uses F-22s, F-16s, and F-15s, as well as C-17s, KC-135s, and I believe C-130s.

a reply to: madmac5150

Any modern aircraft is going to have huge development costs. It doesn't matter if it's a tanker, or the F-35.

a reply to: Zaphod58


The highway runs parallel to the runway. Cool to watch when I ran up that way.

A bit chilly in the winter....

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Allaroundyou

The Norwegians currently use F-16s. You can pretty much drag chute anything and give it the ability to land on ice. Alaska currently uses F-22s, F-16s, and F-15s, as well as C-17s, KC-135s, and I believe C-130s.

Which ones of those need drag chutes to land on ice?


I'm completely ignorant on this.

a reply to: nwtrucker

In Alaska, none of them. Norway actually sees slightly worse conditions at some of their bases than Alaska does, so they chose to use drag chutes on their fighters.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Out of curiosity. What was the lifetime cost of the F-15?

Has that number ever been published?

a reply to: madmac5150

Or it would go up against other airplanes and be able to kill them even though it's not a fighter.

Oh wait, it did. It went 37-0 against rafale and eurofighters.

a reply to: grey580

Nowhere that I've ever seen. Counting the SLEPs, upgrades, and everything else, the upper end of several hundred billion at least I would say.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It"s funny that all you hear about is the initial acquisition costs. "The F35 costs too much!" (Jk) If the general public had the lifetime costs presented to them we would see the end of air dominance as we know it lol.

What happens if the drag chute comes out in flight, say at 30000 feet?

a reply to: Moohide

Then it detaches and falls away.