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A comment on F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time. Parent comment

Re:F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time by sschueller on Monday September 25, 2023 @04:11PM (#37649902)
I thought this was a VTOL aircraft so runway length should not be such an issue.
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Re:F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time by thunderbird120 on Monday September 25, 2023 @04:18PM (#37649999)
The article references the F-35A which is a conventional take off and landing aircraft (CTOL). The F-35B is the short take off and vertical landing (STOVL) variant. The F-35B belongs to the marines is capable of using extremely short and improvised runways and this has been part of its operational concept for quite a while[1]. For an expeditionary force that kind of thing is important.

The F-35A is a bit different in that its a normal air force fighter. This is just proving that if push comes to shove it can be operated out of improvised bases.

[1]https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/f-35b-just-touched-dow...

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Re:F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time by akajla on Monday September 25, 2023 @04:17PM (#37649982)
The article references the F-35A which is the conventional take-off/landing variant whereas the VTOL variant is the F-35B.
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Re:F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time by eschneider on Monday September 25, 2023 @04:18PM (#37650002)
VTOL takeoff usually reduces payload vs a more normal takeoff.
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Re:F-35A Has Flown from a Highway for the First Time by roywiggins on Monday September 25, 2023 @04:16PM (#37649979)
The F-35A variant doesn't do VTOL.
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