F-35B Fighter Jet

Hello all. I'm pretty new to the forum and thought I would bring up something I read today since I haven't seen anything about it here. Popular Science had an article in the latest issue (May 2008) about the F-35B military fighter jet currently in test flights. Here's the interesting part:

The article says that they will be put into service by 2012. It can become airborne in less than 500 feet, as opposed to 3000 feet of runway needed by conventional jet fighters. The lift fan pushes cold air down which causes the jet to float up.
I thought this was pretty interesting because I've never heard of a craft that can do this before.

It's the exact same thing the Harrier does, it just goes about it in a different way. The Harrier uses moveable exhaust ports around the fuselage, and the F-35B is going to use a large lift fan located behind the pilot.

This is a shot of the lift fan.
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This is the first production F-35B when it was rolled out. As you can see they changed the door up on top so that it opens upward instead of two smaller doors like in the first picture.
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reply to post by Zaphod58

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Oh, okay. I didn't know that. It seemed insanely high-tech to me. I'm no aviation or military buff.

That's why you come here and ask questions. To find out things you don't know. Not everyone is a military or aviation buff, and may have questions. This is one of the best forums for having those questions answered. There are a lot of people in here that have extensive backgrounds in the aviation industry.

Besides, you're right. The F-35B is a very cool plane. It's the first time the lift fan design has been used (that I can remember).

Ryan had a similar concept in flight in the 60's. There was also a flood of design proposals in the 80's using the tech, but none to my knowledge made it to production.

Thanks.


For any lurkers interested, this site looks like it has some info on the plane _Del_ mentioned.
aeroweb.brooklyn.cuny.edu...

The S/VTOL Technology is very cool...it's a cool plane, but good lord, they make them ugly lookin' now don't they?

I remember the first time I saw the F-35, I thought it was cool, until I really gave it a good look, and suddenly I saw the Michael Jackson of aircraft designs! Hide the Falcons!!!