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One of the last two returning to Lakenheath today.
F-35A Lightning II
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Ooooh! nice 
I am a bit out of date........are there any 35B variants in regular service yet?
I am a bit out of date........are there any 35B variants in regular service yet?
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Ooooh! nice
I am a bit out of date........are there any 35B variants in regular service yet?
only in the US. there are other countries that have them delivered or ordered but not yet in service.
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•
Darn cool take Piotr!
I am not competent to appreciate the value
of the loud critic of the F35… what's at the
bottom of these?
thanks. what do you mean at the bottom?
Kodiak Qc
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OP
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Sorry… poor translation from French!
What is the base of these loud critics?
oh no worries. It's me being thick. lol! Many people criticise the whole f-35 program as being waaaay too expensive and aircraft having too many problems(mainly software and avionics). I don't want to get into details or share my view as I'm not an expert, but from aviation enthusiast and photography perspective, I must say that plane looks and sounds great! Looks very dynamic in the air.
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Thanks for that!
I love the sight and roar of the F22, F35
and even of the "ugly" A10!
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This cost and failures aspect is what I recall in regard to the 35B variant. It was ordered by us to go onto our two new carriers. Then we flip flopped as to what the correct choice was and AFAIK we settled on the carrier version of the 35A but that resulted in an sort of retrospective redesign of the carriers to re-include the launch catapult system.......for something of the order of another £200m
Granted the Harrier was subsonic but she was a superb example of British aerospace engineering but we sold the last of them to the US and are now not even buying a VSTOL aircraft to replace it
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From what I've read we're getting the 'B' because our carriers won't have catapults.
Anyway stunning image of a stunning plane. I still find it hard to see the differences between the Lightning II and the Raptor (which has a cool name by the way ) at a glance
Anyway stunning image of a stunning plane. I still find it hard to see the differences between the Lightning II and the Raptor (which has a cool name by the way
) at a glance 
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Great shot OP!
People forget that the Harrier at the end of it's lifespan represented 40+years of test/development and over numerous combat operations (which invariably allow more funding and more relevant testing, speeding up development). Many make the same comparison with the Typhoon/Tornado. The point is that our global operations have moved on, we don't really need the capability that a VSTOL aircraft offers anymore (although Harrier did see a lot of CAS in Herrick - that capability is now provided by other platforms). As a base point to develop from, the F35 is vastly superior to the Harrier for many obvious reasons, but the programme is still in its infancy. All aircraft programmes have represented a massive waste/loss of money initially.
Granted the Harrier was subsonic but she was a superb example of British aerospace engineering but we sold the last of them to the US and are now not even buying a VSTOL aircraft to replace it
People forget that the Harrier at the end of it's lifespan represented 40+years of test/development and over numerous combat operations (which invariably allow more funding and more relevant testing, speeding up development). Many make the same comparison with the Typhoon/Tornado. The point is that our global operations have moved on, we don't really need the capability that a VSTOL aircraft offers anymore (although Harrier did see a lot of CAS in Herrick - that capability is now provided by other platforms). As a base point to develop from, the F35 is vastly superior to the Harrier for many obvious reasons, but the programme is still in its infancy. All aircraft programmes have represented a massive waste/loss of money initially.