I posted earlier about the United States Air Force's air superiority fighter aircraft the F-22 Raptor and figured I might as well do a post about the Joint Strike Fighter {JSF} F-35 Lighting II being built by the Lockheed-Martin for use by our Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as for sale to our allies.
The F-35 is a single engine fighter/attack aircraft — unlike the F-22 Raptor which is a twin engine single purpose fighter — and at $83 million per aircraft {flyaway cost} it's about $250 million per plane cheaper than the Raptor.
The Navy and Marine Version comes with a beefed up landing gear for operating aboard our aircraft carriers while the Marine version, the F-35B is also a STOVL {Short Take Off Vertical Landing} aircraft.
In other words it can land, take off and hover just like a helicopter only it can go just a bit faster than your normal helo — like 1.6 mach or 1,200 mph {1,931km/h} faster.
The Lightning II is also the very first production military fighter aircraft to be piloted without a Heads Up Display {HUD} in the cockpit. The HUD is a display that projects flight information, friendly and enemy aircraft location etc directly onto the windshield of the aircraft.
Instead of a HUD the pilot will wear a helmet equipped with the latest HMDS {Helmet Mounted Display System} that provides the pilot with a computer driven virtual cockpit displayed on the inside of his helmet visor.
The pilot's helmet with HMDS. And is it just me or does this helmet look like the helmets the tie fighter pilots wore in Star Wars.
The cockpit of the F-35 with what the virtual display from the HMDS looks like from a pilot's perspective {the green part on the windshield}.
The F-35 Lightning II comes equipped with a cockpit voice recognition system so that the pilot can speak directly to the aircraft and issue it verbal commands.
As I said in the title of the post, the F-35 Lightning II is hard core military pornography.
Click the pics for better viewing.