On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 16:35:19 -0700, Ed Rasimus
wrote:

On Wed, 25 Feb 2004 14:57:33 -0800, Hobo wrote:

In article ,
Ed Rasimus wrote:


While air superiority is always nice for bomb droppers, the F-35
itself is inherently stealthy and quite maneuverable.

BVR the JSF should be good,but WVR it would suffer if it didn't have
an high off boresite missle and an helmet to cue the missile.

It may lack in areas of the flight envelope that is useful for post
missile launch maneauvre to deny the opposition a shot, but its
stealth should make up for it.


Thats my take on it, it all depends on how good the avionics are!
consider the price, lots of stuff may get left off due to weight and
costs...

Cheers




I thought the F-35 had poorer wing loading than modern Russian jets and
was not considered very maneaverable.

Wing loading isn't a very good index of agility. There are a lot of
factors in the mix including the shape, the airfoil, the lift/drag
coefficients, the excess thrust available and the design stability.
Stealthy forms typically are less agile than non-stealthy, but the
state-of-the-art has advanced considerably.

Once you've got sustainable g-available over 7, the terms "not very
maneuverable" become quite relative.


Ed Rasimus
Fighter Pilot (USAF-Ret)
"When Thunder Rolled"
Smithsonian Institution Press
ISBN #1-58834-103-8