US Air Force / Senior Airman Ridge Shan
If this version is confirmed, then the entire fleet of fifth-generation aircraft may be in jeopardy.
February 2, 2022
The new F-35B Lightning fighter prepares to take off from the deck of the new British aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Photo © Getty Images / Mark Wilson
Mysterious accidents
2021 has been a challenging year for the US Air Force. Electronics regularly failed in reconnaissance aircraft in the Black Sea, and the main US and NATO Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter was twice the culprit in major aviation accidents. First, a Royal Navy F-35B fighter fell from the deck of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier, then an American F-35C carrier-based fighter crashed while trying to land on the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier in the South China Sea. Almost immediately after the accident, American analysts wrote that the last car was lost in "exceptionally good weather conditions," as if hinting that a technical malfunction could have caused the crash.
An F-35B fighter jet lands aboard the USS Queen Elizabeth. Photo © Getty Images / Lphot Kyle Heller / Ministry of Defense
This accident, according to analysts, recalls the incident with the F-35A fighter that occurred in 2020. Then, when approaching the runway of the Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, the fighter "suddenly accelerated", and the pilot could not pay off the high landing speed, as a result of which the car was partially destroyed. The second main reason, according to American experts, was that the control surfaces of the aircraft simply "freaked out" - they deviated in opposite directions. The aircraft and the pilot, according to the Air Force report, "quickly got out of sync" as the on-board computer ordered the nose down, and the pilot gave opposite commands, trying to abort the landing and go around. Feeling that the plane was ignoring him, the pilot ejected at low altitude and suffered multiple fractures.
Why does the F-35 cost a fortune?
As part of the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter) program, the Pentagon planned to receive three versions of the machine. The first - with the index "A" - was intended for the Air Force. The second - with the index "B" - was conceived as a version with a short takeoff and landing and was especially promising for use from the landing craft of the Marine Corps. The third and most technically complex modification, the F-35C, was developed as a VTOL fighter.
The main highlight of the aircraft is a three-piece rotary nozzle, with which American engineers had to tinker. The idea to use this technology appeared in the United States back in the 70s, but the Convair Model 200 fighter, proposed by the US Navy as the main carrier-based aircraft, turned out to be too complicated and expensive, so all the technologies created for this technique were put aside for a long time in a safe. In addition, the closest ally already had a similar aircraft - the British Hawker Siddeley Harrier entered the army back in 1969 and is formally considered the first serial VTOL aircraft. The Americans from McDonnell Douglas eventually modified this car to the AV-8B Harrier II version and put it into service. The first Soviet VTOL Yak-38 took to the air in 1970, and its ultra-modern "successor" - the Yak-141 vertical takeoff and landing aircraft - made its first flight in 1987,
Then the Western world and the Soviet Union entered two different eras. For the first, the time of global military dominance began, and in the USSR, torn apart by the economic crisis, there was no place for a technologically advanced and heavily armed "vertical" line. At a turning point for domestic aircraft manufacturers, when the fighter was not yet ready for mass production, and money was no longer allocated for its refinement, aircraft manufacturers from the United States appeared on the horizon. Engineers at Lockheed decided to compare the Soviet rotary nozzle with their own and partially funded the fine-tuning of the Yak-141 in hard currency in exchange for access to technical data and documentation on the Soviet VTOL aircraft.
Why did the US steal Soviet developments?
After studying some of the Soviet solutions, Lockheed Martin decided to radically change the design of the 3BSD rotary nozzle, and it would be more correct to say that it was redesigned, that is, "invented" anew. A few years after the visit to Russia, the Americans presented the first prototype of the F-35B - a machine with a short takeoff and landing, the takeoff control system of which turned out to be like two drops of water similar to the Soviet solution. The location of the compartment with a lifting fan, the tail booms of the airframe were installed relative to the lifting engine at the same angles as in the Yak-141.
The fact of cooperation in Lockheed Martin has not been recognized so far, however, former US Navy carrier-based aviation pilot Henry Saar explains that "the similarity of the two machines is simply amazing."
Why do F-35s keep dropping?
In the history of the F-35 fighter accidents, one barely noticeable detail is noteworthy: the bulk of the problems are detected only on deck machines, which are somehow used for takeoffs with increased engine load. The Yak-141 used several heat-resistant alloys for monstrous loads and temperatures, and the jet rotary nozzle was a layer cake in which each layer, including the inner walls of the nozzle, was made from a special type of alloy. The materials were based on vanadium-titanium and vanadium-chromium alloys, the manufacturing technology of which, according to some reports, did not go to the Americans along with the drawings.
Supersonic VTOL fighter Yak-141, 1994. Photo © TASS / Vladimir Yatsina
The same alloys were also used in the manufacture of the Yak-141 fuel system, which, by the way, was the same for both engines - both lifting and sustainer. The exact composition of the F-35 rotary nozzle is unknown, but it (along with similar alloys) uses heat-resistant ceramics - the same as on the American Space Shuttle. It, according to some reports, was used for the production of external elements of the rotary nozzle. In theory, this solution looks more interesting, since the weight of the part is reduced and its wear resistance is increased. However, what is normal for the Shuttle, it can be deadly for a fighter - during normal flights, pilots rarely experienced problems, but F-35 pilots taking off from the deck of aircraft carriers regularly complain about engine failures. Part of the answer may lie in salty sea water. On theseThe pictures clearly show that the new F-35C carrier-based fighters that have not flown for several years have almost completely lost the radar-absorbing coating of the hull.
According to the candidate of technical sciences, aircraft engineer Yevgeny Dubrovin, in addition to the fuselage, salt water and evaporation could also affect other components of the aircraft.
Aviation experts find it difficult to answer what exactly the problem may be - either Lockheed Martin engineers did not fully think through the production technology of an engine with a rotary nozzle, or Soviet engineers deliberately left a "Trojan horse" in the drawings that left for the West. But it is no longer possible to cancel the F-35 and start refining it - the car is actively sold not only to the US Air Force, Marines and Navy, but also to all possible allies. Whether the F-35 can be considered a promising fighter with huge functionality with such defects is still an open question.
Authors
Sergey Andreev
F-35 Lightning II: Details
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