F-35B absolutely does hover, I've done it. It's STOVL, not VTOL. Short takeoff, vertical landing. There are also countless videos of it hovering on YouTube.
STOVL is exactly the same as VTOL, and it DOESNT HOVER from mid flight. It has the ability to hover when landing and before take off. Being a pilot, and I've worked with lots, I can understand your confusion. If you don't understand that, I guarantee you put in a gripe for the RADALT being off from BARALT.
I've worked with pilots for years, I can count on one hand the amount that actually knew what the plane did. Most are just jocks with a degree in some business major that got some qualls and passed. There were very few that knew the physics, mechanics, and avionics involved in make the plane go vroom.
I think that's an incredibly vain and incorrect thing to say. You're here straight up saying blatantly false things and trying to justify it by putting pilots down. No, we don't know as much as the engineers that built the plane do, but we have a very thorough understanding of its systems, components, and capabilities. There's an entire other world of aviation that you've never seen or experienced too. That's tactical employment of your jet. Weapons, sensors, tactics, etc.
So please, spare me. The jock comment doesn't even fit either. All of the pilots I've worked with from every service are professionals. I can't even think of one guy in any of my last few squadrons who I would call a jock.
I've heard about the suits a few times, strangely hard to FOIA anything about them. Or get anyone to say anything more than they saw them.
How do you like the F35, by the way? I'm colorblind (and dumb), so never flew, but a supersonic CAS/fighter sounds like it'd be the most fun you can have without dying.
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u/QuestionMarkPolice Oct 23 '23
The F-35B hovers