I don't claim to know much about this, but in the audio it did sound like they were seeking clarification about the runway being on the right; I'd be curious to know their airspeed at the time of the avoided colision; would a plane coming down on top of another crush the one underneath? If they hit nose to nose it definitely would be ugly

I assume (but don't know)---in the San Francisco sequence as he psychotically departs from the intersection of Hyde and Chestnut Street down the Hyde St cable car tracks towards the Ghiradelli Square/Aquatic Park area---that the black thing he is holding in his hand is some sort of control of for a disc brake on the rear wheels? The rotors and pads of which...would be glowing red hot and dripping bits of flaming debris as he comes to a stop before being mashed to by crossing traffic on Bay street at the bottom of the hill? Sort of like in those emergency runway brake tests they do for airliners?

"Get off my runway!" ka-pow!

Now its time to get the plane off the runway...

I know right?

At first I was wondering why he was raising the canopy and planes were coming, then he said he signaled and they put up the flags... by that point I'd have to think the pilots aren't watching the flags, they are watching the guys on their wings and the runway... though obviously not enough attention to the runway... probably not much the guy who crashed into him could have done at that point as he didn't appear to have enough speed to take off and slamming to the side would have taken out the planes on his wings.

So it raises the question, why not use a radio to signal abort the take offs, and not just rely on a flag that might be missed.

At least he gave the guy who crashed into him a hug rather than a knockout for clipping him.

It's too bad someone hasn't developed some sort of way of communicating with people that doesn't require flags. Maybe some sort of... I don't now, kinda like a telephone, but without wires... that'd be cool... you could broadcast to everyone "PLANE ON RUNWAY!!! SHUT DOWN!!!"

I know, pie-in-the-sky wishes...

Oh “American National Pride”… Just look where that’s gotten you…

Absolutely ca-razy about the material expansion at supersonic speeds though. And burning 2-tons of fuel just taxiing on the runway. Wow.

If there are two parallel runways they will be labelled R and L for right and left. If there are three, the middle one will be C for centre. (Source).

What about parallel runways?

LOL I can't be a pig and Sarah Palin at the same time. Make up your mind

Those are all valid criticisms, but nobody apart from the flight engineers and test pilots truly know whether this plane is a lemon or not. If it does everything it's supposed to do, then it's exactly what the military asked for, just 10 years too late....

Any suitability and fit for purpose criticism that anyone has ever come up with for the F-35 also applies to just about any piece of military equipment that has been created in the last 70 years. Engineering is a balancing act, and an iterative process. Almost every aircraft, and vehicle in the military today was built to fight a soviet army. Luckily that never happened. But that means that most aircraft and vehicles in the military today have been grossly modified to make them fit for a different purpose. The F-35 will probably go through this as well over the next 30 years, because it's a normal part of the life-cycle of military equipment. Almost every plane dropping bombs now was previously designed as a fighter. But nobody ever calls them out for being mutants like they do with the F-35, they call it additional capability. The F-35 was born with these capabilities instead of being added over time.


Expensive: I'll agree. Could the money have been spent better else where? Definitely. You could argue that the cost is tiny compared to that of a full scale war, maybe F-35 is a good deterrent. Air superiority is the key to winning a war. If you're going to spend money then that's where it should be spent. When the oceans rise enough, is a country like Indonesia going to lash out and try to take land and resources for their civilians? Maybe. I doubt all 200 million of them will just stand there and starve. (Ok I'll concede, this does make me sound a bit like Palin. But hopefully not as dumb )
They could have probably made 3 different stealth planes for 1/2 the cost, but that has it's own strategic downsides. You have to have the right assets in the right places or you have to spread them quite thinly. With a multi-role plane you have all of the capabilities everywhere. Just a matter of a loading it with different weapons.

Not needed: Time will tell whether this is the right plane, but new planes are needed. And they absolutely must have stealth. Within 10 years, weapon systems will be so advanced that if you are spotted, you're as good as dead. We are currently dropping bombs on fairly unsophisticated enemies, but wars tend to escalate quickly. You just never know either way, and it's better to be prepared for the worst. There are plenty of countries with very good planes and pilots that could get sucked into a conflict. If you're really unlucky you could be fighting US made planes with pilots trained in the same way, and you don't want to be fighting a fair fight.
Further still, Russia, China and Japan are developing their own stealth planes, which pretty much forces everyone else to do the same thing.
Especially if Donald Trump gets elected. You never know who that crazy asshole is going to provoke into a war

Doesn't work: It's still in development and testing.

Overtasked: It does the same stuff the aging multi-role planes (that were originally built as fighters) do. With the addition of stealth, and better weapons/sensors/comms. Small performance variables don't win wars, superior tactics and situational awareness does.

Underpowered: Almost every plane ever built has had it's engines upgraded to give it more thrust through it's life. And engines on planes are almost a disposable item, they're constantly being replaced throughout the life-cycle of the plane. Like a formula one car.
The current engine, is already the most powerful engine ever in a jet fighter. It is good enough to fly super sonic without an afterburner, which none of the planes it's replacing are capable of.

Piloted: Agreed. But who knows, maybe a Boston Dynamics robot will be flying it soon

Test Failing: That's only a good thing. You want things to fail during tests, and not in the real world. Testing and finding flaws is a normal part of developing anything.

Fragile: That can be said for all US aircraft. They all need to have the runway checked for FOD, because one little rock can destroy even the best plane. Russian aircraft on the other hand are designed to be rugged though, because they're runways are in terrible condition. But in reality, all sophisticated equipment needs constant maintenance, especially when even a simple failure at 40,000 feet becomes an emergency.

Quickly Obsolete: Time will tell. Perhaps it would have been better to keep upgrading current planes with more technology like plasma stealth gas that make then partially stealthy, better sensors and more computing power. But by the time you've done that you've got a plane that's as heavy as F-35 anyway, and not as capable. Although it might have been cheaper in the long run.

Like I said in my previous comment. All of this doesn't make an interesting story so you'll only ever hear the two extremes which are "the plane sux" vs "it's invicible!!11" depending on your media source.

That was amazing. Slowed to the point where there was no chance of flipping, then veered off to the soft stuff off of the runway where chances of friction-caused sparks that could ignite fuel spills were much lower.

Dunno if this was fully planned out but the results were superb. That pilot either has astounding skill or astounding instincts - or maybe both.

My first thought about this video was 'Who doesn't know that the 'fashion industry' mostly wants sickeningly anorexic women that are completely unattractive to most men?'.
I like there to be some woman to my women.
If you need to see their face to be sure they aren't 12 year old boys, that's just not attractive to me...but then, I don't like 12 year old boys.
I have a hard time feeling sorry for this woman. I don't think she'll have any problem finding modeling work, just maybe not high fashion runway model work. She's better off IMO.

It is a runway. Those white stripes are quite long (compared to those you see on the street).

-scheherazade

"Shaw tried to escape on the world's longest runway."

That. Right. There.