WASHINGTON \u2014 The U.S. Air Force has lifted flight restrictions on lightweight F-35A pilots and will not pursue qualifying United Technologies’ ACES 5 ejection seat \u2014 a major win for Martin-Baker and its US16E pilot escape system, which is used in all variants of the F-35, officials announced Monday.
The service is currently modifying its existing fleet of aircraft with a new lightweight seat switch, which modifies the speed of parachute release depending on the pilot\u2019s weight, and a head support panel. It can move 14 aircraft through the modification process per month, Pleus said. At that rate, the service will finish retrofitting its current inventory of about 107 planes in around December or January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The new lightweight helmets are currently in pre-production and will move into production this fall. To reduce the weight from 5.1 to 4.6 pounds, Rockwell Collins has removed some of the strapping on the inside of the helmet. Also, instead of wearing a clear visor and sun visor at the same time, pilots will switch out their visors depending on the mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Both the seat and helmet modifications will need to be in place before a lightweight pilot can begin training in the aircraft. The Air Force intends to place its first lightweight student in training by the end of 2017, and they could begin flying as soon as 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One question hovering around the F-35 program is whether the Air Force will decide to replace the Martin-Baker ejection seat with another option. All variants of the joint strike fighter incorporate the US16E seat, but the Air Force has different airworthiness restrictions than the other services, Pleus pointed out. So while the Air Force imposed flight restrictions on its own pilots, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps did not raise similar concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The Air Force made its first move away from the Martin-Baker seat last summer, when Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, the service\u2019s top uniformed acquisition official, asked the F-35 joint program office to provide details on the cost and schedule implications for qualifying United Technologies\u2019 ACES 5 seat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The F-35 JPO never produced that information, but the Air Force is satisfied with the current pilot escape solution and will not pursue the ACES 5, Bunch told reporters today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I was asked today, am I going to write a letter that will rescind the need to get additional information [on ACES 5], and that currently is my plan,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin-Baker applauded the Air Force’s decision to lift weight restrictions. The first F-35 with a modified ejection seat flew\u00a0May 4, the company said in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This has been the most scrutinized and intensively tested ejection seat in history. We are extremely pleased that we have successfully met all the specified physiological head and neck load requirements as demonstrated during the ejection seat test program,”\u00a0said James Martin, the company’s CEO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pleus said he had briefed all F-35A pilots on the changes to the pilot escape system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I can assure you that they are confident stepping to their aircraft. I personally have flown in this seat and believe with these modifications this is the safest seat I have ever had a chance to fly in,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In its 2016 report, the Defense Department\u2019s independent testing office criticized the changes to the helmet \u2014 specifically that the single visor left pilots having to swap equipment as weather or light conditions changed. The report noted that there was no storage space onboard for the second visor, and Pleus acknowledged that the Air Force was still working on a solution to that particular issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We don\u2019t actually know what the size of that new single visor is going to be \u2014 in other words, how big of space it\u2019s going to take up in the cockpit,” he said. “As our test pilots continue to fly with these basic pre-production helmets, they will continue to modify the tactics, techniques and procedures for where you\u2019re going to put the external visor \u2026 and we\u2019ll create some sort of a storage solution that removes any opportunity for foreign object damage.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The service is no longer interested in replacing the existing F-35 ejection seat with a United Technologies alternative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":52032,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["your-military","news"],"primary_category":"your-military"},"4":{"categories":["your-air-force","news"],"primary_category":"your-air-force"}}},"categories":[7,12,49],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3384],"class_list":["post-29503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-industry","category-techwatch"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"K3EIFC7XCVCFBBZE2WZY4YPJ3U","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/05\/15\/us-air-force-removes-weight-restrictions-on-f-35a-pilots\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n