USAF F-35A Ends Up Nose Down On The Tarmac At Eglin AFB After Inflight Emergency

An F-35 has suffered a nose gear collapse after making an emergency landing at Eglin AFB in Florida. According to report and pictures in the media, it looks like the gear collapsed AFTER it had taxied off the runway. As such, hopefully the damage is minimal to the airframe. How the EOTS and the AESA radar fared is another story . It also appears that no one was hurt.

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Joint Strike Fighter from the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin Air Force base has made an emergency landing at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida. Though there are still limited details about what happened, the stealthy fighter apparently suffered an issue in flight and its nose gear collapsed after it touched down and had parked.www.thedrive.com...

Odd there have been others recently,
yesterday
Plane forced to make emergency landing in Peru after landing gear fails
www.independent.co.uk...

Ohara
Airplane Makes Emergency Landing Without Landing Gear
www.nbcchicago.com...

3 days ago
Plane Lands Safely At Danbury Airport After Landing Gear Failure
www.courant.com...


Plane carrying Post Malone successfully makes emergency landing
This one the tires blew off
fox5sandiego.com...

Hope they are not being hacked.There are more out there recent too.

a reply to: SeaWorthy

With the number of planes flying daily, it's actually surprising that there aren't more.

Peru was a Q400 it looks like. They have a history of landing gear issues.

Danbury was a General Aviation aircraft. They have a higher accident rate than commercial aircraft.

The Post Malone aircraft didn't have the tires blow off, two tires blew, as in deflated.

Unconfirmed reports that another F-35 suffered a bird strike, with an unknown amount of damage.

a reply to: FredT

I think it should be nicknamed the F-35 nightmare because that's what it's development is like.

The kinks need to be ironed out quickly because it's draining the coffers of the military budget with little results.

a reply to: Thecakeisalie

They've actually solved all the major issues, or have fixes in the works. The biggest problem now is ALIS. The development portion of the program is over.

$100000000 doorstop. Lovely.

a reply to: SlowNail

Oh please. It'll be fixed in a week.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Fair do's.
What's a little downtime for a 9 digit asset, eh?

Hope the time never comes when these crony contract cashcows are genuinely needed.

Say, what kind of terrorist-busting, world-saving, freedom-fighting mission was this bird on before it, uh, broke?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: SlowNail

Oh please. It'll be fixed in a week.

Yeah about that, would any form of airframe damage to the craft, hinder max performance?

I know vehicles lose hella value and even some performace as a result of the frame being damaged, resulting in minor warps

a reply to: SlowNail

You mean like every OTHER plane ever built has had? I love how this aircraft has to be absolutely perfect in every way, when every other aircraft ever developed has had major issues crop up and it was fine.

a reply to: Arnie123

No. It would have to be major damage to get to that point. By the time they're done with this repair you won't even be able to tell it was ever damaged.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Arnie123

No. It would have to be major damage to get to that point. By the time they're done with this repair you won't even be able to tell it was ever damaged.

ah, I see. That's good to know, very strong airframes.

a reply to: Arnie123

We had a -135 that suffered pretty bad damage in a hangar fire. The skin around the crew door is still damaged as it sits in the Tinker Air Park, but it was just as strong as the day it was made. These aircraft are over designed in some areas, and take a beating and stand up to it.

Word on Social Media is that he reported a hydraulic issue. The collapse actually took place in the runway, not in parking.

a reply to: Zaphod58

It'd just be a fix to the landing gear and a little bit of new RAM doubt it'll cost that much in the scheme of things would it?

originally posted by: SlowNail
a reply to: Zaphod58

Fair do's.
What's a little downtime for a 9 digit asset, eh?

Hope the time never comes when these crony contract cashcows are genuinely needed.

Say, what kind of terrorist-busting, world-saving, freedom-fighting mission was this bird on before it, uh, broke?

Spreading freedom

originally posted by: Arnie123

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: SlowNail

Oh please. It'll be fixed in a week.

Yeah about that, would any form of airframe damage to the craft, hinder max performance?

I know vehicles lose hella value and even some performace as a result of the frame being damaged, resulting in minor warps

Meh the airframe will be givin a once over to check for any stress cracks and then it’s just cosmetic damage to repair along with tracking down the cause of the issue to prevent another incident (in theory). While yes a shoddily repaired car frame can cause all kinds of issues but a well trained ASE tech will be able to pull a frame back in square and dimmensions back in spec and the car will take an alignment like nothing ever happened as with everything you get what you pay for.
ETA- As far as performance I don’t believe the airframe is the weak point in the equation, the computer controls limit performance for the benefit of the meatbag flying it, not so much performance limits of the airframe.

a reply to: Woody510

The nose EOTS unit was almost certainly heavily damaged. So whatever caused the problem in the first place, the EOTS unit, nose strut and tires, skin and RAM.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Woody510

The nose EOTS unit was almost certainly heavily damaged. So whatever caused the problem in the first place, the EOTS unit, nose strut and tires, skin and RAM.

Landing bay doors are most likely shot as well