All F-35s grounded; all branches

RDoug

Well-Known Member
Entire F-35 stealth fighter jet fleet grounded by military after crash in September
  • The stand down affects more than 200 jets while an "inspection of a fuel tube" in F-35 engines takes place, according to a Pentagon spokesman.

  • “If suspect fuel tubes are installed, the part will be removed and replaced. If known good fuel tubes are already installed, then those aircraft will be returned to flight status. Inspections are expected to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours,” Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35 program, said in a statement to Fox News.

  • Of the 280 operational F-35s purchased to date by the U.S. and international partners, only about half can fly, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told reporters in March, according to Military.com.
 
Sigh....

Normal occurrence in every aircraft we own after a crash discovers that anything other than pilot error was at fault, but because it’s F-35 it’s “news.”

Apache was grounded fleet wide for the crash at Campbell, and has had a host of serious design issues called into question requiring a fleet wide replacement of the strap packs (flying under special conditions until then) but oh wow a parts lot inspection of a flight critical system on the 35.... let’s alert the media.

That thing could blow up the Death Star tomorrow and we’d find a way to imply it’s a flawed lemon of a design.
 
Lawman, what is a strap pack nut for the Apache?

We had a whole other thread on it when it happened the first time with the Texas Guard crash Apache down in Galveston Bay.

Basically we discovered a serious metal fatigue issue due to corrosion. Grounded a half dozen aircraft when we did inspections in my squadron alone. So the solution that was bandaid applied until the new “fat boy” strap packs made it out to the fleet was replace any found bad, require a full borescope inspection after every shut down and spray them down with distilled water at the end of every days flights. Added a heap of pain in the butt and did virtually nothing.
 
Sigh....

Normal occurrence in every aircraft we own after a crash discovers that anything other than pilot error was at fault, but because it’s F-35 it’s “news.”

Apache was grounded fleet wide for the crash at Campbell, and has had a host of serious design issues called into question requiring a fleet wide replacement of the strap packs (flying under special conditions until then) but oh wow a parts lot inspection of a flight critical system on the 35.... let’s alert the media.

That thing could blow up the Death Star tomorrow and we’d find a way to imply it’s a flawed lemon of a design.

Yup. Absolutely not news.

They're still not on the hook as bad as Osprey for bad stuff it did almost 20 years ago.
 
Why do you always like to act like everyone is making a big deal over nothing? It makes the news almost anytime a fleetwide grounding happens, not just the F-35. You can find similar articles for almost every aircraft in the inventory.

F-15 fleet grounded after a jet falls apart - Los Angeles Times

Apache Helicopters Grounded

US Air Force B-1 bomber fleet grounded after issue with ejection seats, officials say

Because it is “nothing” but what does the news really know about normal in aviation anyway, and because I know this places audience with this particular plane. I’m just getting ahead of the inevitable dogpile of nonsense over here that I’m seeing already on half a dozen aviation/military Facebook pages.

The Apache grounding you posted... that’s not even the grounding I’m talking about, that’s how bad the press missed that one. I remember both. We were back flying quick after the tail rotor lot check. Here you get the sensational “F-35 grounded world wide! Zomg!” and it’s red meat to the crowd of haters.

F-35 gets nothing but bad press for normal stuff. Stuff like “F-35 can’t shoot its gun”. while back. Well no, it was flying at the time without the go to war software version in it that had the actual gun data for sighting... gun worked fine.


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Because it is “nothing” but what does the news really know about normal in aviation anyway, and because I know this places audience with this particular plane. I’m just getting ahead of the inevitable dogpile of nonsense over here that I’m seeing already on half a dozen aviation/military Facebook pages.

The Apache grounding you posted... that’s not even the grounding I’m talking about, that’s how bad the press missed that one. I remember both. We were back flying quick after the tail rotor lot check. Here you get the sensational “F-35 grounded world wide! Zomg!” and it’s red meat to the crowd of haters.

F-35 gets nothing but bad press for normal stuff. Stuff like “F-35 can’t shoot its gun”. while back. Well no, it was flying at the time without the go to war software version in it that had the actual gun data for sighting... gun worked fine.


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I’m not saying the grounding is a big deal. But the “zomg everyone’s picking on the f35”. And I have no idea if the press covered the Apache grounding you’re talking about because all I was doing was showing that the news covers almost every time a fleet is grounded. You’ll find threads on here for other aircraft groundings as well.
 
I’m not saying the grounding is a big deal. But the “zomg everyone’s picking on the f35”. And I have no idea if the press covered the Apache grounding you’re talking about because all I was doing was showing that the news covers almost every time a fleet is grounded. You’ll find threads on here for other aircraft groundings as well.

Cmon man

Are you gonna pretend we haven’t had at least a half dozen threads about this particular airplane over the last year or two for people with no basis of experience to come out of the woodwork telling us how terrible it is.


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Cmon man

Are you gonna pretend we haven’t had at least a half dozen threads about this particular airplane over the last year or two for people with no basis of experience to come out of the woodwork telling us how terrible it is.


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I’m sorry, could you reiterate what experience YOU have with the F-35? I wasn’t aware Army helo units operated them
 
I’m sorry, could you reiterate what experience YOU have with the F-35? I wasn’t aware Army helo units operated them

The J word..... "Joint" .... I know its surprising to people but not all Army warrants spend their lives just flying helicopters as a company pilot.

and Ive got two very good friends that fly it who flew legacy platforms (Hornet and Viper) and have both stated on multiple occasion they are far and above more lethal and capable in this aircraft. Ive also got Experience with Osprey, which gets just as much bad press for a vast set of capabilities it has brought to the table that far and above exceed what the aircraft it replaced could do (Phrog). Not to mention its far safer than the 46 could ever have claimed to be.
 
No one is arguing about the capabilities of the F35. Its whether those capabilities are worth the cost.

A hundred million dollar aircraft that can go to target without an additional hundred million dollar aircraft whose sole job is to help it get there...

Like I and others have said before, this aircraft like Raptor is changing the way we fight the air battle plan. And doing so for the much better, especially when you look at how badly we wholesale abandoned a lot of those speciality capabilities post Cold War like retiring most of our Jammers/SEAD guys. If the 35 can get along without all the additional ass and trash that a Hornet or a Strike would need to get where it’s going, that means I either don’t need that stuff or more importantly can generate other lines of support to missions for aircraft that cannot do what the 35 can. And yes we’ve used that stuff daily these last 17 years. Even in Afghanistan there was a call for Prowlers and Growlers to do “stuff.”

Call me selfish but that means I can have those toys to watch my butt now.


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Entire F-35 stealth fighter jet fleet grounded by military after crash in September
  • The stand down affects more than 200 jets while an "inspection of a fuel tube" in F-35 engines takes place, according to a Pentagon spokesman.
  • “If suspect fuel tubes are installed, the part will be removed and replaced. If known good fuel tubes are already installed, then those aircraft will be returned to flight status. Inspections are expected to be completed within the next 24 to 48 hours,” Joe DellaVedova, a spokesman for the F-35 program, said in a statement to Fox News.
  • Of the 280 operational F-35s purchased to date by the U.S. and international partners, only about half can fly, Vice Adm. Mat Winter, director of the F-35 Joint Program Office, told reporters in March, according to Military.com.
They can inspect my tube. Bang! Zing!

This seems like safety stuff, of course it doesn't work perfectly nothing does. While they are overpriced and over budget, a boondoggle, horribly managed, and will never be the f16 moneymaker taxpayers were promised...it is flying and its gotta be safe.

Next time half the money and no more cuts to gi bill.
 
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