Claim: Video clip shows an F-35 executing a vertical flip on takeoff.
FALSE
Examples:
[Collected via e-mail, December 2010]
This guy clearly has brass balls and you know the sailors on the flight deck had a cow when they saw this unfold in front of them. This is an unbelievable!
A supremely well-trained US Navy pilot, ice running in his veins instead of blood (AND SCARED SHITLESS!), fully regains control of his
There's nothing about this the pilot enjoys. If he could have ejected at 100' upside down and lived, he would have. Looks like the afterburner kicks in while still vectored for verticaltakeoff. Lockheed would call this a "software malfunction" and do a little more "regressive testing". This is a good demonstration of power-to-weight ratio of this aircraft! And talk about stability control...
If he didn't come out of the loop wings-level, it probably would have been bad news; maybe taking some of the carrier with him! Add to this flying through your own exhaust, which can lead to equipment malfunctions, as in "flame out". The
This Guy deserves a Medal for saving a
[Collected via e-mail, June 2009]
This is amazing footage of an F-35 doing a flip right off a carrier deck. The Lockheed Martin F-35
Origins: The F-35
The not-quite-real quality of the graphics, the paucity of crewmen on the flight deck, and (especially) the health/ammunition status indicator in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen give this clip away as a sequence from a video game, in this case
Last updated: 15 January 2014