
F-35 Ejection Seat Fix Delayed to 2018; Pilot Restrictions Continue - the-dude
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/01/08/f-35-ejection-seat-fix-delayed-2018-pilot-restrictions-continue/78519892/
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jacquesm
Funny how the times have changed. The original 'Skunk Works' project (the
XP-80) was designed and built in a little over 4 months. Now a couple of fixes
to an ejection seat take multiple years.

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chii
i want to rationalise it by saying that the original jet did not have to have
to interoperate with existing systems (because there was none), and that the
vehicle had a single purpose, little to no electronics or software, and had
very few inter-connected systems. It was literally a jet engine, with mounted
seats and wings.

The joint strike fighter is a behemoth of a multi-tasker...i m sure the
ejection is somehow tied to all the electronics, and have sensors, etc etc. I
m also sure that as a project grows larger, the amount of beaurocracy also
causes inefficiencies...so not sure whether my rationalisation is correct or
just delusional.

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jacquesm
That's precisely the issue. The original skunkworks was created to cut through
such problems.

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engi_nerd
The modern Skunkworks is now just another large division of the company; which
means it now has much more bureaucracy, making Kelly Johnson's principle of
"ruthlessly reduce the number of people you have working on a project" all the
more difficult to implement.

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Shivetya
So they have no equivalent of NASCAR's HANS device to keep the neck injuries
down? Even a rapid inflate equivalent would be good if they are worried about
the pilot being able to look around with ease

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dogma1138
There are quite a few protection mechanisms the issue only starts to happen
with pilots the weight under 165 lbs (with <136 lbs being at serious risk)
which wasn't discovered during testing. This most likely will only effect
female pilots as far as the USAF goes, and maybe applicable to foreign
customers (although even as far as Europe goes I'm not sure how many male
pilots would be under 74kg being tall especially with long legs, and very well
built pretty much serves you well as far as being able to handle high positive
G's).

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yborg
The aircraft is a defense industry subsidy, not a combat weapon. It will be so
expensive it can't be risked in combat anyway, so the best deployment will be
to park the fleet in hangars, so the ejection scenario doesn't occur.

They will have to pull the planes out and run up the engines every now and
then to get a few of them to start on fire so Pratt & Whitney can continue to
be funneled money for replacements.

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jackweirdy
Immoral idea: This would be the perfect plot point for a Top Gun remake. Goose
would die by broken neck during ejection instead of blunt force trauma. The
influx of USAF applicants would replace the pilots who die of broken necks
during ejection.

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omginternets
Bonus: Danger Zone makes a comeback.

