New problem with the F-35C
Erik Palmer's material appeared on the web site www.f-16.net, informing about the identified new serious problem in the design of the F-35C fighter, the deck version of the Lockheed Martin F-35 (JSF) aircraft being created for the US Navy. Palmer reports on a US Department of Defense document dated November 2011, indicating that all eight landings of the third F-35C prototype (CF-03 aircraft) on an aircraft carrier deck simulator (an analogue of NITKA) based on the US Navy aviation in the first tests of August 2011 of the year were unsuccessful - in none of the eight cases did the F-35C hook catch on the arresting cable. Thus, the aircraft showed its complete inability to land on the aircraft carrier.
These facts became known earlier, but in this case it is revealed that the design features of the F-35С became the cause of failure with hooking the hook: an unusually small distance between the touch point of the hook and the main landing gear of the entire 7,1 foot (about 2,18 meter). Therefore, the hook does not work efficiently and is unable to ensure reliable gripping of the arresting cable. For comparison, for the F-14D deck fighter the distance between the point of contact of the hook and the main landing gear was 22 feet, and for F / A-18E / F it is 18,3 feet.
It is noted that in spite of the fact that the parameters of the requirements for the design of hook deck aircraft are detailed in the US military standards MIL-A-181717C and MIL-D-8708C, they were inexplicably ignored by the designers of Lockheed Martin. The problem with the location of the hook on the F-35С looks serious and difficult to remove, as it is connected with the main elements of the aircraft structure. Moving the hook will be considerable difficulties due to the strength problems of the tail of the aircraft, and it is unclear whether it will be feasible.
Information