F-35 discovered another error that endangers pilots

On January 7, Business Insider reported that the naval version of the 5th generation F-35 Lightning II aircraft was found to have a problem in the design of its landing gear system, which could pose a danger to pilots.

According to this source, the landing gear system of the F-35C version creates too much vibration when the plane leaves the catapult system. This can cause the pilot to injure the head due to too much acceleration or temporarily lose control of the plane when taking off. "The impact on the pilot's head is enough to create unpredictable dangers," Business Insider posted.

The assessments related to the design flaw of the F-35C landing gear system were collected based on information reported by 105 pilots. 74 of them said that when the aircraft took off, they experienced a shock that caused moderate pain (grade 3), 18 others experienced a grade 4 pain (above the normal pain level), and 1 case said the pain suffered during the F-35C take off was “unacceptable”.

F-35C variant for the US Navy.

Previously, in December 2016, the Pentagon's F-35 program leader, Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, admitted to discovering many problems and malfunctions on the first batch of F-35Cs delivered to the US Navy. He affirmed that only a small number of F-35Cs delivered had errors and the problem of over-acceleration causing injury to pilots would disappear when the F-35C aircraft took off with full weapons and fuel in combat mode. However, the Pentagon later had to establish an independent investigation team called the "Red Team" related to the above problem.

According to the current plan, after passing the testing phase, the F-35C will officially serve in the US Navy from 2019. Meanwhile, the F-35A Air Force variant has been accepted for equipment since August 2016 and the F-35B Marine Corps variant has been accepted since August 2015.

Currently, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program that develops the F-35 aircraft is receiving a lot of criticism for budget overspending and the versions of the aircraft not achieving the expected design features. Experts estimate that the total cost of the F-35 aircraft program, including the cost of maintaining the operation of the 5th generation aircraft for the next 55 years, has now reached the 1,500 billion USD mark. This number can increase if the number of F-35 aircraft ordered by the US and other countries continues to decrease.

Designed with many advanced features, including stealth capabilities, the US Department of Defense plans to spend 392 billion USD to buy 2,442 F-35 aircraft (the expected price per aircraft is 160 million USD). However, the cost of the F-35 may increase significantly due to technical errors and the development process being 7 years behind schedule./.

According to QĐND