Also this..
https://www.theregister.co.uk/AMP/2018/01/18/f35_uk_test_pilot_interview_sim_flight/
F-35 'incomparable' to Harrier jump jet, top test pilot tells El Reg
Naturally we demanded proof – and we got it
By
Gareth Corfield
18th January 2018 15:27 GMT
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Interview What's it like to fly an F-35 fighter jet? We interviewed the chief British test pilot about a uniquely British flying technique – and then had a play with a full cockpit simulator to find out for ourselves.
Squadron Leader Andy Edgell is the Royal Air Force's top test pilot for the F-35 flight trials programme. A former Harrier pilot with sea time on two of the UK's previous aircraft carriers, Her Majesty's Ships
Ark Royal and
Illustrious, as well as operational deployments to Kandahar, Afghanistan, he is now based at the US Navy's test base at Patuxent River. He spoke to
The Register in London yesterday at an F-35 press event.
In his view the F-35 and the Harrier, despite broadly doing the same thing (landing vertically) are "almost incomparable" in flying terms: "The design principle of the F-35 is 'low effort' while the Harrier is a challenge to fly."
Andy explained: "The human brain has a finite capacity and we don't want to use that on flying... we want to concentrate on being an operator of sensors."
The theory behind the F-35's "sensor fusion" concept is that by putting some of the world's most advanced radars and other sensors on it, and then networking those with other F-35s, the unparalleled situational awareness this gives the pilots makes them a far more formidable fighting unit than other current frontline fighter jets.
But does the high level of automation leave you "vulnerable" to the aircraft's whims while the pilot pores over his screens, we wondered? "You are in charge, if you choose to use it. Additional automation is there too – height, speed, heading hold. If you need to be hands-on with the throttle and stick, that's available. If you had a dynamic flight, you can dial that down."
SRVL – a thoroughly British bit of innovation
Andy also talked about the "uniquely British" manoeuvre that the UK team at Pax River developed, the shipborne rolling vertical landing (SRVL). For a jet fighter like the Harrier or the F-35, the normal landing technique on an aircraft carrier is to fly over the designated spot, hover and gently set down. But, as Andy explained, this reduces the amount of what he described as "Bernoulli lift" generated by the aircraft's wings. With less lift available, you reduce the maximum landing weight (too heavy and you break the undercarriage during the thump of touchdown) – and therefore the pilot may have to jettison expensive missiles and fuel to bring the aircraft back within safe vertical landing limits.
With the SRVL technique, however, the pilot combines the vertical landing and a traditional horizontal landing like you'd see at an airport. By doing this the amount of Bernoulli lift available is increased – and, in naval aviation terms, the number of unused missiles that can be brought home to fight again with is increased.
"It's a 35-knot overtaking speed at a seven-degree angle relative to the boat," Andy said. "You're literally coming down at the perfect speed and the perfect angle. This is British, utterly British," he enthused. "Everything we've done with the VAAC Harrier at places like Boscombe [Down, home of British military aviation research], stuff with modelling on how aircraft flies, it's brilliant."
"The
VAAC Harrier developed this years ago, with landings on [French aircraft carrier]
Charles de Gaulle and the principles behind it were invented by the British," said Andy. The VAAC (Vectored thrust Advanced Aircraft Control) system, developed over the 1980s and 1990s by the British aeronautical industry, was eventually incorporated in the production F-35B, as is being flown by the RAF, the Royal Navy, the US Marines and Italy.
That theme of automation also plays into the training for operating the F-35. According to both Andy and BAE Systems, the biggest sub-contractor on the F-35 project, around 3,000 hours of test flying have been completed on the full-motion simulator at BAE's Warton plant. Faith in the fidelity of the simulators is critical for the "flight" trials taking place in the UK, which includes both test flying and the training of landing signals officers (LSOs), who are F-35 pilots tasked with talking their comrades safely down to the deck. The simulators for both are linked, meaning the trainee pilot and trainee LSO can interact.
Andy praised the dedication of the BAE team working on the trials, joking: "Every time I see them I'll say, how's the marriage going?"
We've heard enough about it, let's take it for a spin
The F-35 full cockpit simulator at the press event had been set up in London, as part of Lockheed Martin and the Ministry of Defence's efforts to tell the Great British Public that the heart-stoppingly expensive "fifth generation" aircraft really is worth its £100m-ish price tag.
The full cockpit simulator at BAE Warton. Ours was mostly similar
As part of this, your correspondent was cordially invited to have a go at landing the jet on an aircraft carrier. Frankly, it was so easy anyone could do it after being told which three buttons to press.
The F-35's control layout is surprisingly similar to an Airbus airliner, at least in terms of where the control column (well, stick really) is positioned: directly under the pilot's right hand. The throttle sits on the left-hand side of the cockpit. Both are festooned in knobs, rocker switches, buttons and triggers – to the point where your correspondent wasn't entirely sure how to hold the control column without accidentally bombing the
USS America, the target landing ship.
The F-35 simulator cockpit, pilot's view. The instrument display is a single touchscreen unit which is fully customisable to the pilot's preferences – they can even resize and expand windows, something unheard of on military aircraft
As for the landing itself? Andy leaned over: "Put your vector on the back of the boat... that's it." The F-35's systems lock onto its home aircraft carrier and puts a little green circle around the spot on the deck to land on – something that would be very useful in a) finding the ship from long distances and b) actually landing. The pilot's heads-up display (HUD) includes a moving vector symbol that tracks where the aircraft is actually going at any given point. To land, you simply move the jet to put that vector on top of the landing spot circle (after making sure you're approaching from the carrier's stern and not about to fly into the island, or something equally clottish).
Then comes the real magic. Andy leaned in again and pressed a button on the throttle. "That's the lazy button. You can either manage the aircraft's thrust yourself or let the computers do it for you." Even as my mind boggled at this, Andy continued: "There's another one on the stick. If you're coming back after a sortie and decide 'I can't really be bothered' you can let the aircraft fly itself down."
I laughed. "What's the catch?" Andy laughed too. "It's cruise control on steroids."
RAF F-35B ZM137, visiting the UK in 2016. Crown copyright
And there it was. The F-35 can precisely manage its own speed on landing and even fly itself in while you sit back and enjoy the view. This isn't your airliner autothrottle/ILS combo either: the jet is capable of almost seamlessly managing the transition from horizontal to vertical flight entirely on its own before gently settling itself on deck. If you weren't paying attention you'd miss it completely, other than for the F-35 slowing to a speed that would make a conventional fixed-wing aircraft fall out of the sky.
For the landing itself, Andy once again reached in and tapped some buttons on the throttle. "I can increment or decrement your closing speed," he said, dialling up and down the F-35's speed relative to the carrier. There's no tricky mental maths as you reconcile off your own airspeed against the windspeed over the ship's deck: the F-35 does that for you, displays the closing speed on the HUD, and then gives you the luxury of pressing a button to precisely adjust that speed. You could literally sit there and take photos, it's cheating at aviation.
After we landed (and landed again – I didn't quite get the nose down so it quietly wandered back into the sky while we chatted), taking off was as simple as cracking the throttle and pulling back on the stick. The F-35 rose vertically, started flying forwards and Andy then tapped the "vertical fan on/off" button once the airspeed rose: "It's as simple as that."
I then tried some actual flying. Aileron rolls were just as you'd expect from a state-of-the-art fighter jet but the F-35 was noticeably sluggish in pitch, to the point where, while trying to recover from a botched approach that was far too high, fast and steep, I "entered submarine mode", in Andy's words – a result that surprised me from ~400ft at 210kts, around 30-40 degrees nose down. Granted, it's a beyond-visual-range air superiority fighter, not a prop-driven chugalug, but then again I'm just a bloke who likes aeroplanes.
All in all, the F-35 is dead easy to fly and the high level of automation in its systems mean the pilot has more than enough spare mental capacity on hand to focus on operating its sensors and weapons instead of basic aviating. It will certainly be a leap ahead in aviation terms, and might even make the price per aircraft worthwhile. ®