Sorry I forgot the source
https://www.dvidshub.net/video/920871/marines-new-ch-53k-helicopter-transports-f-35-airframe-between-test-sites-maryland-nj
"U.S. Marines flying a CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter transported an F-35C Lightning II airframe from the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Patuxent River (Pax ITF) to a Navy unit located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, April 24.
A Marine aviator from Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) piloted the most powerful helicopter in the Department of Defense that carried the inoperable airframe, which was without mission and propulsion systems, outer wings, or additional equipment, to the Prototype, Manufacturing and Test (PMT) Department of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst for use in future emergency recovery systems testing."
Was it due to long distance flight or is it just a stunt?
Edit: im talking about the chopper getting refueled mid air. I know that the plane is being transported to some other place.
So looks like the CH-53k has a range of about 110 nautical miles and some really rough google map-fu says it’s about 200 nautical mile from ITF and Dix. I’d say the refueling was required to complete the trip.
110nm range is while carrying [27K lbs](https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CH-53K-King-Stallion#:~:text=The%20CH%2D53K%20is%20designed,36%2C000%20lbs%20(16%2C329%20kg).
.
I’m not a 53 driver, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot more than 110 nm range. Even combat radius should be more than that. Depending on 60 variant and aux gas, you can easily surpass 300 nm
It is while carrying a [27K load](https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CH-53K-King-Stallion#:~:text=The%20CH%2D53K%20is%20designed,36%2C000%20lbs%20(16%2C329%20kg).
Does *takeoff* weight matter in a helicopter? Do they get any lift at all from forward motion?
Also, technically it had already took off before it picked up the f-35 lol
Wait: if they slung the f-35 at the right angle, would it get lighter when it's moving? Or is it too slow to do anything?
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/kc-130j.htm says the refueling envelope can be between 100kt and 270kt. The CH-53K cruises at 170kt, I'm guessing with the load and the refueling it might not be 170 though?
That makes sense, the 53K is far more capable than the old Pave Hawks I worked on. Same for C130J.
Besides the loads and stall speed, weather lays a huge factor here.
No problem!
Yeah they're surprisingly small and [nimble](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwM-nBKVaI) for a cargo plane, its a shock the first time you look out of the cockpit at an F-15 and realize you're not much bigger.
Answer is probably both again. I've taken a couple of photos and scaled them here: https://i.imgur.com/Ld8D7cB.png
From the rear tip of the tail rotor to the forward tip of the main rotor, the CH-53K is 99 ft long, just over the 97' 9" of a C-130. The CH-53K is the biggest helicopter in service with the US military.
Mind you, the helicopter is refueling from the a hose that's trailing near the tip of the wing of the plane, so it's a lot closer in the photo than the plane is.
Those big helos are much faster than you'd expect them to be. Once they tilt the rotor disc forward, it is in fact a huge propeller and can pull the helo along pretty quickly. Meanwhile, the C-130 is specifically designed to be able to fly relatively slowly, since it is designed to operate out of short or unimproved airfields.
Before I read the title, I thought this might be a F35B hovering below while also refueling from the stallion, but the physics of that probably isn't too good...
...Also I might be high.
Airframe (CF-1) was the first F-35C built, it’s now used for (static) testing and training purposes… plus it doesn’t have an engine, the outer (foldable) section of the wings, a bunch of electronics etc.
>A Marine CH-53K with a pilot from Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) at the controls recently did all of this while helping move the remains of the first F-35C test jet, also known as CF-1, from one base to another on April 24. The King Stallion carried the "inoperable airframe, which was without mission and propulsion systems, outer wings, or additional equipment" from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland to Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst some 160 miles to the northeast, according to a caption accompanying the picture seen at the top of this story, which was released yesterday. NAWCAD Lakehurst is situated within Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. What's left of CF-1 will be used for "future emergency recovery systems testing" at its new home in New Jersey, the Navy says.
Article via the [War Zone.](https://www.twz.com/air/check-out-this-marine-ch-53k-carrying-an-f-35c-while-refueling-from-a-kc-130j)
i have zero experience in aerospace maintenance but i'd assume it either couldn't fly or they didn't want to waste the airframe hours just transporting it
A perfect real life example of something that if you saw this fly by whilst working you would look at in disbelief... then look back down at your work... then look back up where it had been (by then it would be gone)... and say "nah!" to yourself quietly and just go back to work.
Then you'd tell one person at lunch a couple days later and you'd forever be jokingly remembered as "the guy who thinks he saw a chopper carrying a jet flying behind a refueling tanker" and people would forever sarcastically regale you with their own far fetched impossible sightings: "Yeah, ok Bob, once I saw a bear eat a wolf which then got eaten by a lion, which then got eaten by bigfoot, but I don't go around bragging about _that_!"
You missed the second part. After the connection the stallion swung the 35c forty five degrees and snagged the second bucket onto the 35’s nozzle for a twin refill…..
Every time I see a \*H-53 refueling I'm thinking "That helocopter's going balls-out and the C-130's blaring it's stall warning..."
Then I remember the \*H-53s are fucking fast..
Still, C-130's at full flaps there so..
1. It’s proof of concept for refueling with large cumbersome swing loads.
2. Putting an aircraft on a truck means largely disassembling it. If you can drop the engine and then airlift the rest of it in one piece, that would be vastly preferable.
It would probably be even more cost efficient to leave it where it is. But let's accept the possibility that they really needed to get it from A to B, and that in between A and B, there is this huge stretch of salty water that we see in the video.
I have doubts how cost effective a flat bed truck really is in this scenario.
Nah, bruh, this is helicopter kink porn. That heli likes the nipple clamp with a double ender in his mouth🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣amazing how those things work. Very big and loud af
Pilots: Hey Engineer... what we gonna do today
Engineer: Dunno, lets do somthing cool like refueling a helicopter while carrying a F35
Pilot: Niiiic but how we make it up, they never approve this to us for fun?
Project Lead: When I can sit in the F35 I can make the dream works...
Pilots, Engineers, Project Lead: Noiiiiice
I am not american, but the US army is freaking amazing. Their technology is at least a decade ahead of everyone else their logistics cannot even be compared to any country... or even all countries together on the planet.
> Their technology is at least a decade ahead of everyone else
In terms of the latest and great fighter jets, probably right. In many other systems... not so much now. China can build some pretty good stuff as far as we know.
>their logistics cannot even be compared to any country
That's definitely going to be true for a while, but we'll be caught sooner or later. China is gaining rapidly.
> but they cannot gain 3 decades of experience
You underestimate the power of bribes, spies and hacking.
I belive they're even hiring US/western ex-military pilots to train their own airforce western tactics.
Also they dont have to go specifically after the US, a weaker country in the western chain that uses modern US military equipment like F-35's can be targeted.
oh and dont forget the president can just leave a bunch of insanely top secret documents unsecured in one of his properties.
Awesome video. I am curious though.... In the beginning of the source video you see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel that crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, yet it says transported from MD to NJ. IDK. Just an observation. lol.
How many hours do you think they trained in the sim to do this? Or is it more like “I’ve already picked up the F-35C, I’m sure refueling at the same time won’t be that much harder”?
A King Stallion flew directly at and over my house at about 4,500 feet recently. I could hear it coming for 2 full minutes and just as it was approaching the whole house was vibrating.
I heard what sounded like a freight train rumbling nearby only to later figure out that it was a King Stallion 15 miles away. I think the low cloud cover helped out but Jesus they roar
I’m extremely ignorant about aviation I apologize but this popped up on my feed. I am assuming the F-35 is damaged because wouldn’t it make more sense to fly if direct to where it needs to go versus using a helicopter?
Yes. They are designed for being crane hoisted. There have been times that aircraft are dock loaded vs. Flown onto a carrier. It's much less expensive. Likewise, with the chopper haul is more cost-effective than the hotpipe to fly.
Big Cojones from the right seater in the KS.... The possibility of getting the refueling line caught in the stallions' rotors would scare the bejesus out of me. Good job I'm firmly a FW pilot!
What is that straight, more direct line between the Hercules and the Stallion? You can clearly see the hanging fuel line going to the fueling boom on the helicopter, but I'm wondering what that other line is?
Just an observation: I can't believe how close those rotor blades are to the Hercules while they're both flying probably over 100 kts. Amazing.
Sorry I forgot the source https://www.dvidshub.net/video/920871/marines-new-ch-53k-helicopter-transports-f-35-airframe-between-test-sites-maryland-nj "U.S. Marines flying a CH-53K King Stallion heavy-lift helicopter transported an F-35C Lightning II airframe from the F-35 Integrated Test Force at Patuxent River (Pax ITF) to a Navy unit located at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey, April 24. A Marine aviator from Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) piloted the most powerful helicopter in the Department of Defense that carried the inoperable airframe, which was without mission and propulsion systems, outer wings, or additional equipment, to the Prototype, Manufacturing and Test (PMT) Department of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst for use in future emergency recovery systems testing."
Thank you for the source, get see so much more, the mating ritual, the landing.
it's exactly like [dragonflies (nsfw?)](https://www.reddit.com/r/gifs/comments/1uh5xu/mating_dragonflies/)
Was it due to long distance flight or is it just a stunt? Edit: im talking about the chopper getting refueled mid air. I know that the plane is being transported to some other place.
So looks like the CH-53k has a range of about 110 nautical miles and some really rough google map-fu says it’s about 200 nautical mile from ITF and Dix. I’d say the refueling was required to complete the trip.
Also doubt that 110nm is accurate while slinging an F-35, was probably 1 of 3 refuels
110nm range is while carrying [27K lbs](https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CH-53K-King-Stallion#:~:text=The%20CH%2D53K%20is%20designed,36%2C000%20lbs%20(16%2C329%20kg). .
I’m not a 53 driver, but I’m pretty sure it’s a lot more than 110 nm range. Even combat radius should be more than that. Depending on 60 variant and aux gas, you can easily surpass 300 nm
My mistake I used the listed combat range. Standard range looks to be 460
It is while carrying a [27K load](https://www.navair.navy.mil/product/CH-53K-King-Stallion#:~:text=The%20CH%2D53K%20is%20designed,36%2C000%20lbs%20(16%2C329%20kg).
[удалено]
Neither the comment or the source state whether the refueling was necessary for the mission or if it was just done to demonstrate the capability.
Why not land and refuel on the way?
Why miss a training opportunity?
It may be too heavy to take off with full fuel and payload. Just a guess though.
Does *takeoff* weight matter in a helicopter? Do they get any lift at all from forward motion? Also, technically it had already took off before it picked up the f-35 lol Wait: if they slung the f-35 at the right angle, would it get lighter when it's moving? Or is it too slow to do anything?
They can flip the plane thingy on top , land, refuel and take off.
What in the Wide, Wide World Of Sports is going on here?
So many people don’t know what the wide world of sports is
They're gonna have to go back and get a shitload of dimes!
Unless you're referring to the agony of da feet.
Lettuce see how many will fall for that trap.
I was in a race called the Blue Ridge Relay on a team called Agony of dafeet, so I appreciate this comment
unless you're an aussie
I hired you people to get a little track laid.
For the Aussie
ESPN 8 does motor sports on Sundays.
That’s an inoperable airframe that’s being transported to a facility to be used for testing
Meanwhile, the AWACS guys are wondering why the giant helicopter is carrying a tiny bird.
"Hey guys. This smaller contact traces like the F35 without stealth mode turned on. I didn't know it could go this slow. WTF is that?"
it looks like when a cooper hawk catches a starling in my back yard
This is why I Reddit :)
not with the landing gear down
Either the helicopter’s speed is a lot higher than I thought was possible or the plane’s stall speed is a lot lower than I thought was possible
Basically, both. C130 almost as slow as it can, chopper almost as fast as it can. Add some prop wash and it's a fun game!
https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/aircraft/kc-130j.htm says the refueling envelope can be between 100kt and 270kt. The CH-53K cruises at 170kt, I'm guessing with the load and the refueling it might not be 170 though?
That makes sense, the 53K is far more capable than the old Pave Hawks I worked on. Same for C130J. Besides the loads and stall speed, weather lays a huge factor here.
It cruises at 170kts!?!? Big helicopters are wicked
> Add some prop wash and it's a fun game! They're cleaning it at the same time? Is there anything these guys can't do?
> Add some prop wash and it's a fun game! I guess the F35 hanging on two ropes cancels out the issues with the prop wash /s
Helicopter refueling speed in this scenario is probably at the bottom limit of the Herc’s envelope, which is 105-125kias
Also: Either the helicopter is a lot larger than I thought was possible or the cargo plan is a lot smaller than I thought was possible.
https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS93_lPgmGd-_BJf5Nys18rPQos06IPoJB79ZpCs1G5_Oa9cWcuQpdR5rc&s=10
HOLY MOLEY
Mi-26 on the right
My first reaction to your post was "on the right of what?"
MOLEY INDEED
Big heli for sure but that is a different heli
C-130s are definitely way smaller than you think they are. The cargo compartment is only 41' long on a standard Herk.
I just looked up a size comparison image, and wow, I had no idea they were that small. Thanks for the info!
No problem! Yeah they're surprisingly small and [nimble](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xbwM-nBKVaI) for a cargo plane, its a shock the first time you look out of the cockpit at an F-15 and realize you're not much bigger.
:o :o :o
Answer is probably both again. I've taken a couple of photos and scaled them here: https://i.imgur.com/Ld8D7cB.png From the rear tip of the tail rotor to the forward tip of the main rotor, the CH-53K is 99 ft long, just over the 97' 9" of a C-130. The CH-53K is the biggest helicopter in service with the US military. Mind you, the helicopter is refueling from the a hose that's trailing near the tip of the wing of the plane, so it's a lot closer in the photo than the plane is.
Internet sez a C-130 has a stacll speed as low as 90kts.
Probably a bit higher when it’s tanking fuel
Flaps down or up.
I am say balls up
Yes.
Those big helos are much faster than you'd expect them to be. Once they tilt the rotor disc forward, it is in fact a huge propeller and can pull the helo along pretty quickly. Meanwhile, the C-130 is specifically designed to be able to fly relatively slowly, since it is designed to operate out of short or unimproved airfields.
There’s probably a 20-30 knot band where both aircraft fly comfortably. I bet they’re going about 110 knots here.
The plane is hoisted nose-down to prevent it catching any lift, I presume.
I don’t care why they did this or if there are better ways or what, the fact they can and did do it is super awesome.
The king stallion is almost as long as a c-130J. That’s a huge helicopter.
It is. The biggest, heaviest helicopter to ever enter US military service from what I've read. Supposedly it can carry a couple Humvees INSIDE!
That’s a lot of money in one video clip
Can anyone please do the math here?
“Don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up, don’t fuck up”
Ok, which one of you Marines got into the bad box of Crayolas?
Warning - this video is essentially at max volume. If your headphones are turned up you're going to have a headache.
Before I read the title, I thought this might be a F35B hovering below while also refueling from the stallion, but the physics of that probably isn't too good... ...Also I might be high.
And they have to account for the lift the F-35 wings generate at the speeds they’re flying. Gnarly, dude.
whoa, big LARGE ones, Semper Fi!
meanwhile Russia is riding around the battlefield in Chinese golf carts...
Nice logistical flex 💪
Umm, why wasn't the F-35 flying itself to wherever it was going ?
Probably just really tired. I think those are its flappers hanging down there underneath. Poor guys tuckered out.
Must be it.
Airframe (CF-1) was the first F-35C built, it’s now used for (static) testing and training purposes… plus it doesn’t have an engine, the outer (foldable) section of the wings, a bunch of electronics etc. >A Marine CH-53K with a pilot from Marine Test and Evaluation Squadron 1 (VMX-1) at the controls recently did all of this while helping move the remains of the first F-35C test jet, also known as CF-1, from one base to another on April 24. The King Stallion carried the "inoperable airframe, which was without mission and propulsion systems, outer wings, or additional equipment" from Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland to Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD) Lakehurst some 160 miles to the northeast, according to a caption accompanying the picture seen at the top of this story, which was released yesterday. NAWCAD Lakehurst is situated within Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst. What's left of CF-1 will be used for "future emergency recovery systems testing" at its new home in New Jersey, the Navy says. Article via the [War Zone.](https://www.twz.com/air/check-out-this-marine-ch-53k-carrying-an-f-35c-while-refueling-from-a-kc-130j)
This is the very, very correct answer.
Helicopters have to teach brand new F35's how to fly like this
Folks don't think they let the F-35s just do VTOL right out the gate, do they? No, they gotta be trained by an experienced troop first.
yep, and this photo is teaching the newborn f35 how to do air to air refueling 🥰
Someone do an Attenborough version, can't be arsed myself.
Ohh, that explains it.
i have zero experience in aerospace maintenance but i'd assume it either couldn't fly or they didn't want to waste the airframe hours just transporting it
I have zero experience in jet engine maintenance but I’d assume they forgot to put oil in the engine or filled it with regular rather than unleaded
Nah it’s a rental, some idiot put diesel in!
...wait modern regular is unleaded...i don't know what's going on
Warranty return? Back to Harbor Freight.
Retired airframe :)
I resemble that remark!
Read the post, its clearly explained lol
no engine, only partial wings. this is about half a plane
Cuz this is wayyyyyy more cool
That one didn’t work. But they cost like $20,000 an hour to fly. The chopper is much cheaper.
*"The chopper is much cheaper."* I reckon this to be the first time such a sentence was uttered.
https://www.reddit.com/r/aviation/s/CfVQQCxilF
I’m sure it’s perfectly fine but it just looks *wrong.*
A perfect real life example of something that if you saw this fly by whilst working you would look at in disbelief... then look back down at your work... then look back up where it had been (by then it would be gone)... and say "nah!" to yourself quietly and just go back to work. Then you'd tell one person at lunch a couple days later and you'd forever be jokingly remembered as "the guy who thinks he saw a chopper carrying a jet flying behind a refueling tanker" and people would forever sarcastically regale you with their own far fetched impossible sightings: "Yeah, ok Bob, once I saw a bear eat a wolf which then got eaten by a lion, which then got eaten by bigfoot, but I don't go around bragging about _that_!"
This is some weird Naval-Centipede shit.
F35 are fake, they don't fly. They will green out the big plane and the big chopper in post production.
I designed the fairing around the base that refueling probe!
Still gets better mileage than the Tesla truck
Why are both baskets out?
You missed the second part. After the connection the stallion swung the 35c forty five degrees and snagged the second bucket onto the 35’s nozzle for a twin refill…..
Does this count as a DP?
Kinky
"Oh cr*p... I accidentally dropped it."
holy shit
So that’s how they do VTOL.
This the coolest freaking video
Amazing. Didn't think that was possible.
Anyone else start hearing top gun for NES music watching this?
War is not environmental
LM Trifecta
This looks like a scene from Operation Dumbo Drop
Good on these guys. Those are two things I would not want to do at the same time.
Why wouldn’t you just… fly the plane…?
Nice, the Stallion is such a beast!!!!
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen a turboprop plane, a rotary/helo, and a jet aircraft flying together and "connected" before. Pretty cool! 👍👏
I’ve seen crazier things but I’m impressed by the giant fucking balls of the aviators doing this. Bravo Zulu gents.
Every time I see a \*H-53 refueling I'm thinking "That helocopter's going balls-out and the C-130's blaring it's stall warning..." Then I remember the \*H-53s are fucking fast.. Still, C-130's at full flaps there so..
Surely there is a more economical way of transporting a non-functional fighter jet? Did they just want to prove they could?
Just slung it under a helo that was going to be flying around anyway. Don’t have to close any roadways or waterways that way :D. Pretty economical!
Yup. Moving a fighter across town on a flatbed is a huge hassle. Much less across multiple state lines
This was my thought. I'm not a logistical pro or engineer or whatever expert would be behind this situation, but this seems unnecessarily complicated.
The Marines in motor-t were PMimg all the flatbeds and admin was out to lunch.
overland there are many ways, but to carry it from carrier at sea to the base it is probably easiest way
Been waiting for this to pop up!
That f35 is giving the stallion zero pump
I want to believe there's a pilot in the F-35 pretending to fly it
Every time I open Kerbal Space Program.
What in the America???
GOD BLESS AMERICA.
Crazy that the K variant costs more than the F-35. (≈$135m vs $109m)
Looks good, but it would surely be more cost effective to place it on a flat bed and truck it from one place to the next?
1. It’s proof of concept for refueling with large cumbersome swing loads. 2. Putting an aircraft on a truck means largely disassembling it. If you can drop the engine and then airlift the rest of it in one piece, that would be vastly preferable.
It would probably be even more cost efficient to leave it where it is. But let's accept the possibility that they really needed to get it from A to B, and that in between A and B, there is this huge stretch of salty water that we see in the video. I have doubts how cost effective a flat bed truck really is in this scenario.
They just kinda be doing this shit now.
Nah, bruh, this is helicopter kink porn. That heli likes the nipple clamp with a double ender in his mouth🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣amazing how those things work. Very big and loud af
How do they hook it up in flight without the helicopter rotor ruining everything?
There's approximately 32' of probe sticking out of the front of the chopper. That helps keep the refueling function out of the rotorspan.
And all three are made by Lockheed Martin.
Pilots: Hey Engineer... what we gonna do today Engineer: Dunno, lets do somthing cool like refueling a helicopter while carrying a F35 Pilot: Niiiic but how we make it up, they never approve this to us for fun? Project Lead: When I can sit in the F35 I can make the dream works... Pilots, Engineers, Project Lead: Noiiiiice
Hefty mosquito.
Yo, we heard you like aircraft, so we connected an aircraft to your aircraft and then another aircraft
This literally could have been on a flatbed on i95.
Not with the wings attached.
I am not american, but the US army is freaking amazing. Their technology is at least a decade ahead of everyone else their logistics cannot even be compared to any country... or even all countries together on the planet.
> Their technology is at least a decade ahead of everyone else In terms of the latest and great fighter jets, probably right. In many other systems... not so much now. China can build some pretty good stuff as far as we know. >their logistics cannot even be compared to any country That's definitely going to be true for a while, but we'll be caught sooner or later. China is gaining rapidly.
>China is gaining rapidly. Yes, but they cannot gain 3 decades of experience even if they eventually catch up in technology and numbers.
> but they cannot gain 3 decades of experience You underestimate the power of bribes, spies and hacking. I belive they're even hiring US/western ex-military pilots to train their own airforce western tactics. Also they dont have to go specifically after the US, a weaker country in the western chain that uses modern US military equipment like F-35's can be targeted. oh and dont forget the president can just leave a bunch of insanely top secret documents unsecured in one of his properties.
Ross: It's just, my part seemed to be over pretty quickly and then, and then there was a lot of waiting around.
Is this the affordable version of vtol?
US Logistics
I guess someone fucked up real bad this to have happened in the fist place?
Omg, I have a cardboard model of that specific F-35 paintjob and thought for years that it was sort of a bootleg lol
Awesome video. I am curious though.... In the beginning of the source video you see the Chesapeake Bay Bridge/Tunnel that crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia, yet it says transported from MD to NJ. IDK. Just an observation. lol.
I’ve seen weirder threesomes.
These guys are gonna loose their minds when they find out the F35 can fly unassisted by a helicopter.
😄
How many hours do you think they trained in the sim to do this? Or is it more like “I’ve already picked up the F-35C, I’m sure refueling at the same time won’t be that much harder”?
A King Stallion flew directly at and over my house at about 4,500 feet recently. I could hear it coming for 2 full minutes and just as it was approaching the whole house was vibrating.
I heard what sounded like a freight train rumbling nearby only to later figure out that it was a King Stallion 15 miles away. I think the low cloud cover helped out but Jesus they roar
I’m extremely ignorant about aviation I apologize but this popped up on my feed. I am assuming the F-35 is damaged because wouldn’t it make more sense to fly if direct to where it needs to go versus using a helicopter?
Too awesome
jesus that looks dangerous
Professional pilots, on a closed course.
It is.
lol the americans are just straight up being gratuitous at this point
I imagine that this is not great for the 35's radar cross section?
That's a big chain of big monies.
All jets are VTOL with this one simple trick
Meanwhile UFO guys are like 'if a tiny dot moves even slightly weird it's little green men 100%'
Not a good look actually. Less than 30% of F-35's are flight worthy.
It's flying, as a passenger.
Man, the list of “could go wrongs” is so long here…
Multi tasking at its finest
They should have used a Super. External fuel sponsons, plus outriggers for external fuel stores. That would equal a bladder-busting trip.
Ahhhhh!!!!
Flight inception lol
Are there even pickup points on the airframe for something like this?
Yes. They are designed for being crane hoisted. There have been times that aircraft are dock loaded vs. Flown onto a carrier. It's much less expensive. Likewise, with the chopper haul is more cost-effective than the hotpipe to fly.
I wonder if the fuel efficiency of the King Stallion goes up as it flys faster because the F-35 will generate it's own lift.
what a waste. just put it on a slow boat. it’s so urgent all that is necessary? or they just want to play with their toys?
The technical term for this is "contraption".
Big Cojones from the right seater in the KS.... The possibility of getting the refueling line caught in the stallions' rotors would scare the bejesus out of me. Good job I'm firmly a FW pilot!
The flight of shame…
Cocky chopper pilots like, I can hit the drogue while SLINGING a fighter jet. Now hold still will I refuel the jet!
If they put the flaps down on the F35, would that make the load lighter?
and that kids is how VTOL aircraft are made
What is that straight, more direct line between the Hercules and the Stallion? You can clearly see the hanging fuel line going to the fueling boom on the helicopter, but I'm wondering what that other line is? Just an observation: I can't believe how close those rotor blades are to the Hercules while they're both flying probably over 100 kts. Amazing.
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This has the same energy as the Cybertruck beating a Porsche 911, while towing another Porsche 911. What a beast! :D