The Daily Report item:
An F-35 Thunderbird?: Circulating on the Web, we believe first courtesy of www.f-16.net, is a PowerPoint slide presentation produced by Lockheed Martin that has rendered an F-35A (ed: link added) model in the Thunderbird aerial demonstration team color scheme. The F-35A is the USAF conventional takeoff and landing variant. A Lockheed spokesman tells the Daily Report that the company plans to "build fully functional and realistic 3D models of all three F-35 variants to be used for any future project." Really good job. (All nine views of the F-35A Thunderbirds model in PDF format)
Me likey.
Jesse will be very interested in this - and she loves plane pron.
ReplyDeleteEVERYONE loves plane pr0n, no? :D
ReplyDeletePretty cool...huh!?
ReplyDeleteDefinitely sweet!
ReplyDeleteBig Mistake. I know the AF likes to put it's latest out there, but that is like when they went with the F-4s, just not maneuverable enough for tight airshows. England's Red Arrows avoid all that by using highly maneuverable trainers. Had Folland Gnats for years, now it's the new what's-it's-name trainer they've re-equipped with. Much more sensible and a longer aircraft live-span for continunity's sake. They'll probably use the "hover" version for the crowd pleasing oohhs and aahhs.
ReplyDeleteI think this paint scheme was just a LockMart PR exercise, Virg. I gotta agree with you, as you know a whole Helluva lot more about flying than I ever will. But... speaking from an airshow observer's perspective, the T-Birds in F-4s were pretty danged impressive. You never lost sight of 'em, given the F-4's size. Visibility was a problem during the years they flew T-38s and I don't think the show was half as impressive.
ReplyDeleteI saw the Red Arrows a couple of times in the early '80s when they first began flying Hawks, and they had the same sort of visibility issues. IMHO.