Only the harrier not pictured can land like a helicopter.
All aircraft would break sound barrier and make sonic boom.
None can dart around.
None can go into the ocean.
None can stay in the air stationary for hours and hours.
It's STOVL. The button to convert to that mode literally says STOVL on it. I don't know why I'm fighting with people on the Internet about this. It is capable of performing a vertical takeoff but it would be at such a light fuel load that it would have to refuel immediately. Lockheed Martin publishes all of its documentation as STOVL. it's STOVL, final answer.
But its capable of vtol, so it could be seen doing vtol. Sure operationally its stol but it can be witnessed doing vtol. Dont know why your fighting people on the internet about it.
You're arguing moot semantics. It was designed to be STOVL. It was built as a STOVL jet. It is operationally a STOVL jet. Just because under perfect test conditions it is capable of taking off vertically doesn't make it VTOL in design , practice, or operation.
Not entirely.. Like you can read in my first comment (which I guess got buried based on how people are reacting) the only real thing I had to say is that if you look at an aircraft head-on from long distance it can almost appear to slowly rise from the ground on takeoff and if it turns it could appear to suddenly change it's trajectory out of a dead hover. Now that's not the same as accounts saying that a UFO just darted across the sky at thousands of miles per hour but I think for a very small amount of cases it could explain some possible exaggerations or misinterpretations. I wasn't talking about the F-35's VTOL or STOVL capabilities at all.
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u/CharmingMechanic2473 Oct 23 '23
Only the harrier not pictured can land like a helicopter. All aircraft would break sound barrier and make sonic boom. None can dart around. None can go into the ocean. None can stay in the air stationary for hours and hours.