Vought is Simulating F-35 Landings on Navy Aircraft Carriers

Landing a modern fighter jet on a Navy aircraft carrier is often described as a controlled crash, with a 25-ton airplane's landing gear colliding with steel at a rate far above that in any conventional landing.

It's a collision that will have been simulated more than 50 times in bone-jarring tests before the first F-35C Lightning II ever lands on a Navy carrier.

Over and over again in recent weeks, a giant overhead hoist crane in a hangar at Vought Aircraft Industries in Grand Prairie has lifted a specially equipped test version of the F-35C as high as 12 feet and dropped it, wheels spinning to simulate the aircraft's landing speed, on a steel platform.

This article was written by Bob Cox at the Star Telegram

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