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THE F-35 | Where the World's Most Advanced Fighter Jet is Built - YouTube
Channel: Sam Eckholm
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what's up everyone my name is sam eckham
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and today i'm at lockheed martin's f-35
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fighter jet production plant this is a
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place that very few people have had
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access to film at
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but today i'm going to show you what it
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takes to assemble one of the world's
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most technologically
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advanced aircraft the f-35 lightning
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[Music]
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ii
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[Music]
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now if you don't already know the f-35
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is no ordinary fighter jet it was
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designed to maintain air dominance for
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years to come
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with its stealth characteristics sensor
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fusion and weapons loadouts
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believe me when i say that this thing is
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pretty badass but before we get ahead of
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ourselves i think it's important that we
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take a little bit of a step back
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to learn about the history of the f-35
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and everything that it's really capable
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[Music]
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of
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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so where do i begin the f-35 is quite
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literally a rocket ship
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with an engine capable of producing 43
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000 pounds of thrust propelling the
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aircraft to over one and a half times
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the speed of sound this jet is something
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else
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as the most advanced fighter aircraft in
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the world it was designed as a 5th
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generation
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multirole fighter meaning it can perform
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both air-to-air and air-to-ground
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missions
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now to best meet the needs of the
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countries purchasing the jet the f-35
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comes in three different variants
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the a-model used for air-to-air combat
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the c-model used for carrier operations
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and if you've ever heard something about
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this jet being able to hover well
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that's the b model optimized for short
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takeoff and vertical landing
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now in addition to this jets
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capabilities its performance record is
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pretty stellar as well
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the f-35 has been deployed all across
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the world for both combat operations and
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training exercises
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in fact at red flag which is the us air
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force's premier air combat training
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exercise the f-35 demonstrated a greater
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than 20 to one kill ratio against
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advanced threats
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not too bad if you ask me honestly the
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mere presence of the f-35 changes the
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way adversaries plan
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and behave and so if you're in the
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market for a fifth generation fighter
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jet
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believe me when i say that this one
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takes the prize
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now with the jet so advanced i had
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always wondered what all goes into the
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manufacturing process
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however what i hadn't realized is that
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lockheed martin's mile-long fort worth
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facility known as plant 4
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has been around since 1942 where it
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began manufacturing the b-24 liberator
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during world war ii
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over the years the plant has produced
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thousands of aircraft to include one of
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my personal favorites the f-16
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today plant 4 houses over 16 000
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employees
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and pushes over a hundred new f-35s out
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the door
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every single year i think it's safe to
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say that there's quite a lot to see
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here which leads us perfectly to the
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first stop on the tour the beginning of
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the production line where the f35 we all
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know
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looks quite a bit different than you
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might imagine
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so here we are at the very beginning of
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the f-35 production line if you take a
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look all the way down there well that's
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the very end where the final aircraft is
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rolled out the door
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so everything in between there's a lot
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going on but behind me is the aircraft
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wing systems where the foundation of any
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aircraft is built the wings in a
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vertical position
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where they finish the wing and then send
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it off to the next and then the next
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line where more and more gets added on
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there's a lot going on guys so we better
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go ahead and get going
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all right now hear me out as weird as it
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may sound you can really think of the
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f-35 production line as a bunch of legos
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at each stop along the way a different
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component is added and the legos are
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pieced together getting closer and
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closer to the final product
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there is so much innovation in
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engineering that goes into all of this
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a lot of which is way more complex than
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i could ever comprehend
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but as i made my way down the production
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line something pretty interesting did
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catch my eye
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wait is that a robot yeah you heard that
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right
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robots i guess it makes sense that the
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company manufacturing such a
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technologically advanced machine
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would use robots in the process but i
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wasn't expecting these robots to be
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this cool
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[Music]
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yes we do use robots here at lockheed
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martin as you can see behind me we have
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blue delta echo and charlie
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unfortunately chris pratt isn't at the
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desk right now operating alpha doesn't
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work fridays
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what we have behind us is the automated
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fastener fill robotic work cell
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basically if you consider like dry
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walling this robotic cell will go
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and put a plastic material over all of
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our fasteners to maintain its stealth
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capabilities
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what we're doing here is optimizing the
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work that operators can do
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by taking away the dull dirty and
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dangerous tasks that are associated with
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this process
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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as my trip down the production line
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continued not only did i see more robots
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but i also saw the f-35 beginning to
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come together
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each step along the way was one more
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piece of the puzzle it really is just a
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big systematic process
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with every single individual along the
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way adding their touch before passing it
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along to the next person in line
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[Music]
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welcome to the end of the f-35
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production line this is where the final
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tweaks and adjustments are made before
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the aircraft is ready to head out the
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doors
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now lockheed martin delivers about 150
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aircraft every single year
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and with many different countries a part
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of the f-35 program believe me when i
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say that this thing
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heads out all across the world
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so now that we've reached the end of the
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line you may be asking yourself
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what else does lockheed martin's plant
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have in store well let's just say that
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there was someone in particular who has
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quite the reputation around these
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parts he's a former navy fighter pilot
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renowned lockheed martin test pilot
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and just so happens to be one of a very
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select few individuals
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who has flown all three variants of the
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f-35
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i hope you're ready because let me
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introduce you to brick
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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wilson
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hey guys i'm tony wilson callsign brick
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i'm one of the f-35 test pilots here at
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lockheed martin
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and i get the privileges of taking the
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f-35 flying for the first time when it
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comes off the production facility
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unfortunately it's a single-seat
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aircraft so we couldn't take sam flying
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with us
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but stick with me we got some really
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cool surprises for him
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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so here we are at the cockpit
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demonstrator we really wanted to give
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you the opportunity to see what
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it's like to actually fly the aircraft
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the first thing you'll notice is you
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know
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the cockpit is almost uh identical to
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what it is in the the plane
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show me everything but it's close no it
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is close so you know under your left
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hand you got the throttle
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on your right hand will be the stick up
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in front of you there is
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uh the glass you know what we refer to
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as the glass and how you'll interact
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with the systems
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and then up on the screen is the virtual
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hud it's the same thing that would be
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shown
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on the pilot's helmet yeah i'm not the
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best pilot but i think i'm ready to take
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uh take it for a spin here
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let's do it
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[Music]
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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so i'm not gonna lie having the chance
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to fly the f-35 cockpit demonstrator was
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a blast
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and if you're wondering if it made me
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question my decision not to become a
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fighter pilot well
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let's just say the thought did cross my
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mind
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even though this was just a simulator it
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was pretty realistic
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right down to the g-forces
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all right i might be kidding on that one
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i was able to do a few takeoffs spin
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around a bit and even cycle through the
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weapon systems to engage enemy targets
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that appeared on screen
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after i successfully completed my
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landing my time was up and i said
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goodbye to the f35 cockpit
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however brick had a few more surprises
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in store and this next one was something
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that i had definitely been wanting to
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see
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yo sam if you thought everything you've
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seen was cool up till now
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check out the f-35 helmet look at this
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thing i'll tell you what it's
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more than just a helmet right i mean
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there's so much technology and
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electronics
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that go into this it's actually
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integrated into the aircraft it's an
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additional sensor for the pilot
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it gives the pilot so much situational
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awareness to what's going on around him
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or her
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it's just amazing you know additionally
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this is the piece of equipment you know
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when we talk about the f-35 and being
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able to look through the jet
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it's possible because of this piece of
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equipment and how it integrates with the
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jet
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yeah i've heard the pilot gets to wear
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this and they kind of see all around
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them see through the bottom of the plane
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and
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i mean it's intimidating looking looks
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like something right out of star wars
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it's awesome
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you want to try it on i do yeah all
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right do it
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[Music]
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so sam the the projectors are up here
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above you so we're going to drop the
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the first visor okay it's clicked in
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i can see the green lights in your eyes
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yeah so you can see it and then
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we'll drop the sun visor wow and there
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you go
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can you see the display i can that's
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awesome
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it's just like right there all right sam
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so you've seen how we made the jet
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you've had the opportunity to feel what
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it's like when you fly it in the
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simulator
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you've even tried on the helmet why
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don't we get you out to the flight line
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so you can actually see one of these
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amazing machines up close
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sounds awesome let's go let's go
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[Music]
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all right so sam we're standing here in
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front of the f-35 lightning ii
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this is a b model which means it's got
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the capability to hover it's used
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primarily by the united states marine
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corps the italian and the brits
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so tell me what's your first impression
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well after walking the entire production
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line and seeing it
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put together piece by piece it's really
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cool to be out here to see the finished
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product
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it's lethal it's stealthy it's fierce
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and i'd love to get a walk around if you
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don't mind let's do it all right
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[Music]
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this is my office right here and i got
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to tell you i've got the best seat in
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the company right
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i get to fly this fantastic machine it's
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the cutting edge of technology
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you know so when we make the statement
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that the f-35
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is the most capable the most connected
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the most survivable aircraft on the
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planet
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take it from me because i do it every
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day and i'm jealous i wish i could go
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for a ride but i can see there's only
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one seat so unless you strap me to the
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wings or have a seat belt extender it's
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not going to work
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well maybe we can put you in the weapon
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bed it's a good idea
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[Music]
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so behind us we have the engine and one
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of the coolest things about the f-35b
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is to watch it transform and watch that
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engine nozzle actually come down
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you know the engine is capable of
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putting out 40 000 pounds of thrust so
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we're in a hover
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about 20 000 pounds are coming out the
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back end and about 20 000 pounds coming
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out of the lift van
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[Music]
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so sam let me tell you this thing is a
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lethal beast right
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it has two weapons bays which you know
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lets us stay stealthy when we need to
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we also have the capability of carrying
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weapons under each wing
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we can carry amrams we carry a nine x's
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uh jdams small diameter bombs almost any
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piece of arsenal that's uh
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uh you know in the inventory we can put
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it on so what you're saying is this
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thing has a lot of firepower
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that's an understatement
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so sam there's one more stop that we got
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to make i've got a pilot walking to a
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jet right now so why don't we head out
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to the flight line and watch this thing
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take off
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let's do it sounds awesome awesome
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[Music]
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so if you made it this far you're
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probably ready to see a real f-35 in
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action
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trust me i was too as the pilot began
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gearing up for his flight i decided to
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look for the best seat in the house
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after navigating quite a few sets of
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stairs i found myself
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right where i wanted to be the top of
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the lockheed martin control tower
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[Music]
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so
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[Music]
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all right here we go
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so there you have it the f-35 in all its
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glory
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now i wish i could show you guys a few
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more of its maneuvers and capabilities
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but i think i'll leave that for a future
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video
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well guys if you aren't pumped up and
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full of adrenaline i don't know what to
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say because that was insane
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if you ever have the chance to see the
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f-35 fly in person
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i promise it's gonna take your breath
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away i hope you enjoyed this little
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behind the scenes tour of lockheed
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martin's f-35 production plant
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and as always thanks so much for tuning
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in and i'll see you guys next time
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