Share this page!

Enter URL or ID to Unroll

You can paste full URL like: https://x.com/threadreaderapp/status/1644127596119195649
or just the ID like: 1644127596119195649

How to get URL link on X (Twitter) App

  1. On the Twitter thread, click on or icon on the bottom
  2. Click again on or Share Via icon
  3. Click on Copy Link to Tweet
  4. Paste it above and click "Unroll Thread"!
  5. More info at Twitter Help
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
@the_engi_nerd
Sep 11 • 5 tweets • 2 min read • Read on X
I've told this story before, but I had a smaller audience then.

I was once in a meeting with the lead engineer for the F-35 navigation system. I asked a question I had always wondered about: why are many of the F-35's antennas a different color than the rest of the jet?
Context: Northrop Grumman is the contractor responsible for the F-35 Communications/Navigation/Interrogation (CNI) suite. This engineer had worked on the CNI suite for years. So I thought he would know. His answer:

"That's the color the jet was originally supposed to be."
He elaborated:
"If you look at the original concepts for the jet, it was much lighter than it is now. And we closely matched that color. But then the color was changed."

I asked, "So why not change it now?"

His answer was a perfect microcosm of inter-contractor relations. One of LM's concepts for the JSF with a much lighter color than the F-35 we have now
"Well, we could. But Lockheed told us we could only do that if it were a zero-cost change. And of course even revising a drawing for production has definite cost. So we've left it."
So yeah. The lighter color in the splinter aggressor scheme you see in the quoted post up above is pretty much the original intended color of the F-35

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with HIGH PLANES Drifter

HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @the_engi_nerd

HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Jun 18
Okay, so in a few replies to people here today, I've said more or less this:

"The F-35 is a great aircraft but it's a terrible program."

I could write some lengthy thread where I cite a bunch of systems engineering stuff, but here's a better way to explain things.
One explanation for the problems of the F-35 program has been "There are too many cooks in the kitchen."

Let's take that metaphor farther.

The F-35 program is like a restaurant. But the restaurant is very strange.
The restaurant is owned by an absentee owner who has passed day-to-day control to a manager with many years of experience. The owner is so disinterested that he tells the manager that he doesn't care what kind of food is served or how, so long as the diners are happy.
Read 21 tweets
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Apr 29
Let's put a bookend on the V-22 thread from the other day and tell the story of why I hated the NVH-3A test aircraft. 🧵
This is BuNo 150614 (614 for short). Delivered in 1962, it served as a transport for Presidents Nixon and Ford. It was then sent to the boneyard, where it stayed until 1984. Returned to service, it found its way to NAS Pax River by 1988, where it served as a test aircraft. Image
Given the one of a kind designation of "NVH-3A", this was the test aircraft for all of the H-3s serving the executive transport role. Sometime in the mid 2000s, 614 was sent to Sikorsky's facility in West Palm Beach for testing new carbon blades and other upgrades.
Read 23 tweets
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Apr 27
On June 1, 2009, the VH-71 Presidential Helicopter program was terminated after years of delays and cost overruns. But we still needed a replacement for the NVH-3A as "Marine One".

Here's the story of how I learned that the V-22 wouldn't be that replacement. 🧵

📸 US Navy Image
With the VH-71 cancelled, the program began looking for solutions. Maybe an existing platform could be used. So the program decided to do a study to see if any existing platforms would work. Part of that was an acoustic survey to see just how loud existing platforms are.
At the PMA-274 Presidential Helicopter hangar at NAS Pax River, an array of microphones was installed on one of the hangar doors. The plan: get various helicopters to hover approximately as far away as Marine One will come in to land from the White House, and measure the sound. Image
Read 11 tweets
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Apr 26
On April 24, 2024, a CH-53K transported an F-35C, tail number CF-01, from its storage site Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, to to a Navy unit located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey.

📸 Kyra Helwick Image
Some of you had questions: why not fly the jet? Wouldn't it be more economical to just update CF-01 to the latest F-35 configuration?

To shed some light on these questions, let's look at how the F-35 program used its test aircraft.

📸 Kyra Helwick Image
After the STOVL Weight Attack effort of 2004, the program established a plan building test aircraft. The program planned on 5 F-35A, 5 F-35B, and 4 F-35C test jets. While these would be supplemented by production jets brought back into test, these 14 jets formed the core. Image
Read 13 tweets
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Apr 5
As I've just spent a while riffing on in the replies, being a telemetry engineer on the Sounding Rocket program was...an experience. Read the first few paragraphs of this article.

The scenario being described was literally my job during launch. archive.is/oGqY6
These were the kind of computers being used. Luggable, single board computers. 486s, the "new Dolches" we had were equipped with Pentium 1s @ 66 MHz.

I had to cannibalize three of them to get one working.

I installed Windows 95 on one of these in the year 2013 Image
We would hook these up to a dot matrix printer. I have a very vivid memory of the tractor feed paper we used, they still had reams of it in big boxes with the WALDENBOOKS logo. What a nostalgia trip.
Read 12 tweets
HIGH PLANES Drifter Profile picture
Mar 27
You go to an air show and see one of these on display. An F-35A! But...what's the deal with the black and white stickers all over it? Let's go down the rabbit hole and talk about weapons separation testing on the F-35 as we did it during the SDD days. A 🧵
📸:@Jack1nthecrack Image
Once again, our references are my own experiences and "The F-35 Lightning II: From Concept To Cockpit", specifically Chapter 16, "F-35 Weapons Separation Test and Verification". This chapter is also available standalone if you have AIAA access: arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.…
Image
The F-35 program performed 183 stores separation tests, all safely, during F-35 system design and development. Each one of these tests was carefully planned and monitored to make sure things didn't go wrong.

Here's one famous mishap from F-18 @ Pax River
Read 12 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

Send Email!

:(