In article ,
Fred J. McCall wrote:

Chad Irby wrote:

:My original point was that the F-35 is going to have a combat range
:about 50% higher than the F-18 E/F according to the specs.

Even the source you gave (FAS) doesn't claim that. What they say is
combat range about 50% higher than the F/A-18C/D (not Super Hornet) ON
INTERNAL FUEL.

What they say is that is has *twice* the range of the F-18C on internal
fuel, not 50% higher. And that's also fairly obviously referring *only*
to the F-35's internal fuel load, since the F-18C has a much smaller
fuel load without external tanks (the F-35 has a 7200 kilogram internal
fuel load, versus less than 5000 kilograms for the F-18), you're going
to have to explain that magical fuel economy for the F-18C, with much
older engines and all of that external armament and tankage hanging off
of the wings.

That's the other thing you're ignoring... when you're talking about a
useful mission, it's a clean but loaded F-35 versus an F-18 with several
tons of fuel and bombs and missiles hanging out there in the airflow.

And you were complaining about possible practical problems with the F-35
airframe causing huge changes in air friction, but blindly denying the
plain fact that the other planes have *huge* issues in this area.

Note that the Super Hornet has about 40% more range than the Hornet.

....on internal fuel, plus two drop tanks, plus weapons. And 40% more
range than 290 nm for an interdiction mission doesn't put it anywhere
near a 500 nm range.

See, you *can* (as I've said two or three times so far) make longer
missions, by carrying less weapons, or loading the plane to to point it
can't recover on the launching carrier without dropping stuff into the
water, but you can also do the same "extreme" missions with the F-35.

For a more normal mission, the F-35 is going to have that same huge
advantage over the F-18 that I've been talking about.

Now, would you like to rethink that remark?

Would you like to rethink yours?

Especially since the same sort of rationale for the long F-35 range is
the *same* rationale for the long F-18E/F range, but I don't see you
commenting on that...

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

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Slam on brakes accordingly.