I thought this was pretty cool. Raytheon promotional information on both the aircraft and its weapons load-out (from Raytheon). Pictures, a few videos and a graphic of the initial contract for A, B, and C models of the aircraft.

F-35 Program by Raytheon

Click on the "Gallery" near the bottom of the page for more than just pictures. Also links to further information and a few videos.

I saw and heard four of them take off from Hill today. I love that sound. It never gets old.

Funny that one of Lockheed Martin’s biggest competitors is featuring their product!

They certainly look awesome.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Funny that one of Lockheed Martin’s biggest competitors is featuring their product!

Not really, Raytheon isn't in the airplane building business. Boeing was their competitor.

RHINOWSO, one of the F35's I saw today had wingtip vortices, but the others did not. That F35 was rolling a bit more than the others. Were the wing vortices a function of speed? It was sure awesome to watch.

quote:

Originally posted by deepocean:
RHINOWSO, one of the F35's I saw today had wingtip vortices, but the others did not. That F35 was rolling a bit more than the others. Were the wing vortices a function of speed? It was sure awesome to watch.

It's a combination of speed, humidity, angle of attack (angle the plane is flying). Sometimes it doesn't take much, but I'm not familiar with the F-35 other than doing some operations with them CONUS, but we never get close enough to see them up close.

Different designs do it more / less and from different locations. In the Hornet / Superhornet the LEX (Leading Edge Extensions) made them often under high AoA, as well as the wingtips. But sometimes the wingtips would do it at relatively low speed / AoA when it was humid enough.

Thank you, RHINOWSO.

Not nearly as cool looking as the F-14.

I got a tour of the F35 production line recently. It was an awesome experience.