Grounding has been lifted
with some restrictions. That’s why the F-35Bs will not be able to cross the
Ocean to attend the Farnborough International Airshow.
On July 15, the Pentagon announced
the fleet wide grounding has
been lifted after investigation on the issue that caused the engine fire on an F-35A CTOL
(Conventional Take Off and Landing) on Jun. 23 did not
highlight a systemic problem.
The root cause of the fire has been
identified in excessive rubbing between the turbine blades and the cowling, a
problem not endemic to the fleet, based on the inspections of the other F-35 engines;
still something that must be closely monitored.
That’s why the return to flight is
restricted: the F-35s
can’t fly faster than Mach 0.9 and are limited to 18 degrees of angle of
attack. The envelope is limited from -1 G to +3 Gs and, above all, after three
hours of flight time, each front fan section of each engine has to be inspected
with a borescope.
http://theaviationist.com/2014/07/15/f-35-not-attending-fia/
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