VFA-101 F-35C Air-To-Air

[nachtjaeger]

Not an expert, but here goes:

From the vapor trails off the wingtips and rudders, can we safely say the aircraft is currently trans-sonic? Judging by the exhaust, the afterburner is on. And given the aircraft's attitude and open weapons bay, my opinion would be that the aircraft is flying a combat sim. If the aircraft taking the photo has a cannon and can turn inside the F-35, the F-35 pilot is in trouble. And that afterburner is screaming "Hey! Over here!" to every heat-seeker in the F-35's six. I personally wouldn't want to take the F-35 to knife-fighting range where its stealth and advanced sensors lose their advantage. Might as well be flying an F-4F Phantom II at that point, or better yet one of the fully modernized F-8P Corsairs the French were still flying in '99- four 20mm internal cannons and four Sidewinders make a helluva dogfighter.

[DangerGirl]

Not an expert, but here goes:

From the vapor trails off the wingtips and rudders, can we safely say the aircraft is currently trans-sonic? Judging by the exhaust, the afterburner is on. And given the aircraft's attitude and open weapons bay, my opinion would be that the aircraft is flying a combat sim. If the aircraft taking the photo has a cannon and can turn inside the F-35, the F-35 pilot is in trouble. And that afterburner is screaming "Hey! Over here!" to every heat-seeker in the F-35's six. I personally wouldn't want to take the F-35 to knife-fighting range where its stealth and advanced sensors lose their advantage. Might as well be flying an F-4F Phantom II at that point, or better yet one of the fully modernized F-8P Corsairs the French were still flying in '99- four 20mm internal cannons and four Sidewinders make a helluva dogfighter.

No, it's not transonic. The vapor formation on the tops of the wings and in the wingtip vortices indicate he's just loaded up the wings and is pulling a lot of g's, and given the F-35's attitude relative to the canopy of the plane from which the picture was taken, it looks like he just executed a high-g break. The blower is engaged to prevent him from losing too much energy in that turn.

If he was transonic, the vapor would be a cone shape around airplane, conforming to the shockwave produced by the nose.

[schlamm]

Very true, DG...this is an F-22 that was way below supersonic performing a similar maneuver to that you described

[DangerGirl]

Is that a white one in there? If it is a live shoot-ex, isn't the chase plane a shade close? Unless that's part of the test, weapon launch under high-g load and unusual attitudes

Since the air-to-air weapons are mounted on the bay doors, they may be testing the doors' operation under high g loads.

[nachtjaeger]

Thanks for the correction, gang. Sheesh, just thinking about the physics involved in creating those vapor trails is overwhelming.

Very true, DG...this is an F-22 that was way below supersonic performing a similar maneuver to that you described

[schlamm]

Nah, high G's creates lower pressure than the surrounding air - instant cloud, it is also why they are so much more common at or near sea level or in more humid climates