F-35
18 JUNE/JULY 2016 www.vanguardcanada.com
would still be outnumbered by Soviet warplanes, but a stealth
airplane can change that."
Compared to the CF-18's Commodore computers, the F-35's
onboard computer has 8.6 million lines of code, and it doesn't
just have a front facing radar, but sensors and radars that provide
the pilot 360 degrees of monitoring capability.
"We're no longer playing Pong, we're now playing Halo 5 and
Grand Theft Auto. My office space is really two big iPad screens
in front and a helmet like the one Tony Stark wears," says Billie.
He explains that the unique capabilities of the F-35 are "its
stealth features, survivability for the pilot and new flying tactics"
associated with the airplane. This means using the plane's radars
and sensors that can spot enemy aircraft from hundreds of miles
out to lock in on a target and shoot it down with missiles, even
before being seen by the enemy.
"I am not going to go one-on-one against an aggressor. I'm go-
ing to fly in without being seen. I'll drop my bomb or shoot my
target and fly out before I am spotted," he says. "We know this
tactic works because we have learned from flying the F-22 Rap-
tor (an older 5th Gen fighter) that it dominates every exercise in
every place it has flown."
What if an F-35 pilot gets into a situation where an actual dog-
fight is inevitable? Forget other articles that claim the F-35 is not
a fighter, says Billie.
"My jet flies 700 knots, that's 1,400 kph or 1.6 times the speed
of sound, and I regularly over-speed my jet. The F-35 pulls nine
Gs, that's more than the F-18 and the same as the Eurofighter,"
says Billie. "And I can fly slower than an F-18. The F-18 has a
25-degree angle of attack, while the F-35 has a 50-degree angle of
attack. So the F-35 can fly faster, slower and better."
"I am not going to go one-on-one
against an aggressor. I'm going to
fly in without being seen. I'll drop
my bomb or shoot my target and
fly out before I am spotted."
– Billie Flynn, test pilot for Lockheed Martin.
Continued on page 21
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