I don't know much about Harriers, but don't F-35Bs have much greater stores capabilities?

I know # of stores are a function of length of mission, but since Harriet was so heavy, seems like I read F-35B could fly more stores on the same mission. And bring back more.

Not sure what you mean by the harrier being heavy, it's a lot lighter than the F-35. Empty weight about 16k and MTOW of 32k if my memory holds up. F-35 is about 30k empty and MTOW 60ish. I'm sure it can carry more if they don't care about stealth and use external stores. USMC wanted a supersonic stealth harrier and they got it. I'm just saying it's not the complete game changer capability wise the earlier poster alluded to.

That ME-262 in the foreground was re-created at Paine Field about 20 years ago by a guy I know. I got to help a little bit with it.

Here's a link to his project.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Me_262_Project'

Harriers would pretty much never win in a head to head vs advanced fighters. F35 is not an F22 but it can do some serious damage and hold its own. The LHA/LHD can now stretch the air superiority mission that the Nimitz and Ford class carriers had to shoulder exclusively. They can work like a picket fence many miles away from the carriers. Yes the B model F35 is highly dependent on refueling, but the new refueling drones will make refueling much easier. They should be able to get a lot more of those drones operating in the battle space to support them.

LHA/LHD's exist primarily as amphibious assault ships, not as crappy miniature CVN's. They typically carry six jets, which is too few for a continuous CAP. Even with more jets, the air department is too small for cyclic ops. They are too slow to really operate with CVN's, so they can't count on their AEW or refueling. A picket for CVN's is a terrible idea, as they'd be dependent on the CVN, would slow it down, and would need a DDG anyway to be an actual picket which defeats the purpose of having a vulnerable LHA out there in the first place.

In theory, an LHA with 20 F-35's could be used to augment a CVN. In reality, they got slightly more capable jets for ships that can't really do much they couldn't already do with AV-8B's.

I appreciate this insight. I've been on the program 20+ years but no operational insight other than how usage affects structural loads.

We tend to live in our silos since the work is so specialized.

What. No mile high club??????????

The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day:

114 years ago today, on Feb. 18, 1910 a Frenchman named Louis Paulhan made the first recorded airplane flight in Texas. Louis did it in a Farman III biplane. After the Wright brothers' controlled airplane flights in 1903, aeronautical progress… pic.twitter.com/InE60IYRD2

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) February 18, 2024

"Texas Kate," a Consolidated B-24 bomber during World War II. Assigned to the 7th Air Force, 30th Bomb Group, 392nd Bomb Squadron. Part of the inscription reads: "Captain W.S. Trewitt Dallas
Another Texas Aggie 1937
Kate's ol man

Crew Chief J.H. Springer
"Slave Driver" pic.twitter.com/qjrhk6ySta

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) March 12, 2024

Blue Angels IMAX doc, May 17