"Henry J Cobb" wrote in message
...
The Marines are about to get the best dogfighter in the world.

Nope. No VIFFing on this one. If you could even open all the doors on the
lift system at high speeds, they'd probably just tear off anyway.

How fast can it go and still use the roll nozzles? (Or does the lift fan
have to be open to use those?)

Speaking to the X-35B.....The roll posts don't get thrust from the lift fan,
but the system is mechanized to not use roll posts in conventional flight.
Aero moments are way bigger than thrust in roll above like 90kts, and thrust
rolling moments are comparatively negligible at 150.

And does this mean that the F/A-22 can use shorter runways than the F-35A?

Depends on the weight condition.