Pilot Ejects From F-35B

cvairwerks said:

OOPs.....Old article, but same issue, different fuel line. The current one....

Pentagon grounds some F-35s after ejection on Texas runway

The F-35 Joint Program Office told services a fuel tube failure may have caused an F-35B's crash, which has now led to some fighters being grounded.

www.defensenews.com

Click to expand...

Given the scant details available, I'm not sure we can say it's the "same issue." This incident refers to a "fuel tube" whereas the old article refers to a "fueldraulic line" (whatever one of those might be). While I can accept both have "fuel" in the title, they could be very different issues with different causes and remediation approaches.

Happy to be corrected if I'm misunderstanding the situation.

Fueldraulics are the motivating force for most mechanical operations on the F135 engine. Instead of having hydraulic actuators and be coupled to the aircraft hydraulics or a standalone system, the fueldraulic system is run by fuel pressure off of various fuel pumps. Nozzle control drives are included in this. Any fuel line that had a problem big enough to cause an engine problem of this magnitude, is going to be in the fueldraulic system, outside of a main fuel line issue. Whether it was a hard line or a flex line, nothing has been released yet. It's enough of a problem that a specific set of B models have been temporarily grounded until the conclusion of the investigation. No idea on why Israel grounded a portion of their fleet, as they only have A models.

Here's a photo of a B model engine on the stand. A significant portion of the hard and flex lines you can see are fueldraulic. There are a number of oil lines, but most are on the forward end of the core section.

View: https://youtu.be/a9u_Cq9SH5E

A usual, Ward does a great job!

You would know better than I would.

Just saw this tonight.