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2014-01-22 Science & Technology

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Posted by Uncle Phester 2014-01-22 00:00|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 Sure, after the last F-22 is scrapped and for the 10 minutes a year the hangar queen will be able to fly.

Posted by Silentbrick 2014-01-22 00:33|| 2014-01-22 00:33|| Front Page Top

#2 Since it will be the only fixed wing strike aircraft the US has, it will have to; after the Light attack mafia and it's siblings kill off all the other platforms.
The STOL version will be a maintenance headache; the lift fan under the nose has already proven to be a huge money and manhour pit and the carrier version had to be redesigned last year when it was discovered its tailhook was too short to effectively grab a wire, and the obvious solution to lengthen it caused it to interfere with the exhaust duct......
don't even want to talk about the hugely espensive manufacturing processes required so the airplane snaps together lego style; no more match drilling on assembly, hole tolerances are on the order of 0.004" true position; any more and the panels are rejected (or at least sidelined and saved to put into play on one bastard bird). but that saves on having to have skilled metalsmiths assembling them; just find any IAM knuckledragger....

Posted by USN, Ret. 2014-01-22 01:08|| 2014-01-22 01:08|| Front Page Top

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