The F-35 Will Literally Take Your Breath Away (And Not In A Good Way)

Task and Purpose, Jared Keller

Security,

Is the F-35 in trouble? 

The oxygen-deprivation problems aren’t just constrained to training aircraft like the T-45. As War Is Boring points out, in 2011, the Air Force grounded its fleet of F-22 stealth fighters, supposedly “the most capable aircraft in the world,” due to a hypoxia rate that was nine times more pronounced than in other U.S. fighters.

The Air Force and Lockheed Martin are making a big fuss out of the first-ever acrobatic demonstration of the much-hyped F-35 stealth fighter at the Paris Air Show this week, for one good reason: to astound and astonish allies and enemies alike with a lung-crushing display of American engineering prowess.

The daily peacocking of the deeply flawed and notoriously expensive combat fighter in the skies above Paris is meant to “reassure (allies) that we are committed to NATO 100 percent and that we have got the capability to respond to any action necessary,” F-35 joint program administrator Brig. General (Select) Todd Canterbury told the Associated Press on June 19 — despite recent, uh, ambiguity around the U.S. commitment to NATO.

(Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in 2017.)

But the tests also have another important purpose: to “crush year of misinformation” about the fighter, as Lockheed Martin test pilot Billie Flynn told Aviation Week on June 18. And boy howdy, is the F-35 getting the job done!

So what’s the verdict on the F-35’s breathtaking debut in Paris? Here are seven reasons the most advanced combat fighter on the planet will actually take your breath away.

The plane suffocates its pilots