Happy landings

The Ministry of Defence will now adopt QinetiQ’s landing aid on its new jump jet, the F-35B Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). An SRVL landing involves an aircraft executing a ‘rolling landing’ onto the carrier flight deck using air speed to provide wingborne lift to compliment engine thrust. Compared to standard vertical landing, an SRVL recovery allows heavier payloads to be brought back and landed onboard. However, early studies revealed the F-35B had a critical vulnerability to deck motion for SRVL manoeuvres. As a result, the MOD placed a contract with QinetiQ in 2007 to devise a solution. The Bedford Array visual landing aid system was designed to ensure pilots make an accurate approach to the deck, by combining inputs from external passive references and information in the pilot’s helmet mounted display to stabilise the approach in rough conditions. A T4 Vectored-thrust Aircraft Advanced Control (VAAC) Harrier aircraft flew a total of 39 sorties in the southwest approaches to test the Bedford Array landing system and a total of 67 vertical landings and around 230 SRVL approaches were flown.