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2022-07-30 Science & Technology

Air Force grounds entire F-35 Lightning II fighter jet fleet to check for faulty part in ejection seat

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Posted by Skidmark 2022-07-30 00:00|| || Front Page|| [4 views ] Top

#1 Air Force diversity festival to include drag show

Posted by Skidmark 2022-07-30 06:19|| 2022-07-30 06:19|| Front Page Top

#2 ...And the T-38 Talon fleet as well.

FWIW, this happened several times while I was in - at two of my bases, I worked Inspection, which meant that when the word came down part of my job was to check every single cart. Depending on the situation, we looked for physical damage/defects, or certain lot/manufacturing/date of manufacture numbers.

This sort of thing is not unknown, and grounding an entire fleet is a prudent, if awkward and complicated response. The trouble is that you usually find out about a problem when something goes horribly wrong. For instance, in the early 80s Thunderbird Lead took off from Cleveland after an airshow, and ingested a seagull. He ejected, but the separation cart failed to fire and he ended up riding the seat back down.

Mike

Posted by Mike Kozlowski 2022-07-30 06:43|| 2022-07-30 06:43|| Front Page Top

#3 Must have been one helluva ride.

Posted by Whiskey Mike 2022-07-30 07:36|| 2022-07-30 07:36|| Front Page Top

#4 Yikes. Hope the chute size was considered for such a thing.

Posted by swksvolFF 2022-07-30 10:13|| 2022-07-30 10:13|| Front Page Top

#5 Likely not in the calculation. Egress training sort of simulates landing at 20mph with out an additional? 400# weight added on. If canopy doesn't rip apart, still landing on unpadded chunk of steel on your seat and whatever that apparatus does on landing. I recall there is a manual release of you have time. Mike might know more about that. I'll surely ask next training

Posted by Glatch Thud2820 2022-07-30 21:07|| 2022-07-30 21:07|| Front Page Top

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