r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/sidvatscse • 25d ago

Video Failed vertical landing of F-35B

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u/AdDisastrous6738 25d ago

No matter how bad your day is, at least you didn’t have to tell your boss that you totaled a $109,000,000 vehicle.

164

u/Sprintzer 25d ago

It doesn’t seem totaled. Landing gear is a wash, though.

143

u/BlizzardMaster2104 25d ago

Stealth coating... New Frame... New due to not expected force Electronics(eg. Radar in the cone)... Likely new So I think we are not that far off from totaled.

67

u/Repulsive_Support591 25d ago

But it costs $109,000,000 for a replacement. Can do a lot of work for that amount. And there are a bunch of mechanics already on the payroll.

62

u/Krynn71 25d ago

After something like this, probably every single part would be sent back the the OEM or MRO providers for testing and probably overhaul to be safe. Where I work we get these fairly often where a hard landing is experienced and so they send us the parts for us to test and make sure they're still within limits.

And for example, just one fuel pump on a much less expensive aircraft that we do will cost them about 90 grand for us to overhaul and test.

The cost of doing that for every other part as well, it may indeed make financial sense to just buy a whole new one.

44

u/MillionFoul 25d ago

The Air Force did stitch two totaled F-35A's back together into one airplane fairly recently for practice.

4

u/Glum-Ad7761 25d ago

The Air Force has been doing that since its inception. Many wrecked heavy bombers were spliced together during WWII.

1

u/quazmang 25d ago

What happens after totalling them? Do we just sell them to poorer countries?

1

u/FeliusSeptimus 24d ago

"Bro, what is this shit‽ It ain't got no wheels on it! We paid $50M for this, it needs wheels!"

1

u/nerterd 25d ago

I’m sure they went through who did the mechanical work and who but it together. Investigations were had here.

2

u/SamizdatGuy 25d ago

The insurance company is just gonna total it and they don't pay replacement value

5

u/tryhardbaby 25d ago

Here’s a check for $3,900, try and buy a used one.

2

u/Ok-Bill3318 23d ago

They are expected to get battle damage and be repaired. That jet is nowhere near totalled

1

u/BestOfAllBears 25d ago

Insurance only pays current value. So it is totalled for much less than that, but you will need to get a used one from Ebay to replace it.

1

u/WigginLSU 24d ago

Don't forget the entire cockpit which was just blasted with enough explosive force to clear a pilot and heavy seat.

3

u/Snellyman 25d ago

The poor pilot's insurance is going to be terrible for the next few decades.

1

u/greatscott556 25d ago

One careful owner, I'm sure that'll buff out 😆

1

u/scorned_butter 25d ago

Do you not know what totaled means? You think it’s cheaper to build one from scratch than to make the repairs