DoD Buzz: JSF STOVL Woes Strike Pax River

[unhappycamper]

JSF STOVL Woes Strike Pax River
By Colin Clark Monday, November 23rd, 2009 2:40 pm
Posted in Air, Naval, Policy

A troublesome fuel shutoff valve. The engine inlet rake needs replacement.

Those are among the latest reported problems with the Joint Strike Fighter program, specifically with the STOVL version that just arrived at Patuxent River.

Here are the details of what we heard from Pax River. There was a fuel problem Tuesday at Patuxent. They found a problem with a fuel shutoff valve. They decided the aircraft cannot fly with this and need to change the valve. That requires engine removal.

The engine inlet rake is also “problematic,” our source said, and they needed to fix it for STOVL flight testing. They plan to fix the inlet rake while removing the engine to replace the fuel shutoff valve. This may take 10 to 12 days.

A congressional aide, told of the issues, checked on them: “All true apparently , except the “inlet rake” was a pre-planned remove/replace as it has a finite “service life”, when they had to R/R the engine. Since the rake was going to stop them before they could finish all 14 flights to VL, they decided to do it concurrent with the engine R/R–at least, that is the story.”


Rest of article about this $239 million dollar POS at: http://www.dodbuzz.com/2009/11/23/jsf-stovl-woes-strike-pax-river/?wh=wh