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Comment by Element_ | Hacker News Reader

The US military was planning to fly 5 f35's across the Atlantic for the Farnborough airshow next week in an effort to shore up support for the UK purchase. They were originally supposed to be there by June 29th so this is another delay. Looks like they haven't made a final decision on the trip yet (not sure if I would want to be one of the pilots flying these things across the ocean, a trip that requires ~10 aerial refuelings)

[http://aviationweek.com/defense/pentagon-grounds-f-35-fleet-...]

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There is a difference between combat radius and ferry range. The F-35B has a ferry range of about 900nm so to get from NAS Pax River to UK would only require 5 or 6 tankings in the air. This assumes the F-35Bs fly without external tanks.

Almost all long crossings over ocean require a divert point if the jets can't refuel in the air, or have a trapped fuel issue where they can't use fuel from one or more tanks.

Typically, fighters "top up" the tanks more than strictly needed, for additional margin if something goes wrong. It doesn't require 10 refuelings, just for range.

Another likely explanation is a delay in getting clearance to fly in the UK, largely due to the recent mishap. http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/02/uk-lockheed-fighter...

> "Strict UK liability laws mean British authorities need additional information before granting flight clearances. If something went wrong, the individual officer who approved the flight could be sued personally, the sources said."

Edit: Corrected the point about extra refuelings.

Does it really take 10 in-flight refuelling? How's that possible?

Canada to Greenland to Iceland to UK is only about 1000 nm.

There was a comment elsewhere that they need to be within range of land at all times in case a refuelling fails.

They are flying from: Patuxent River Maryland to: Fairford England which has a direct flight path of ~5800kms. The range of the F35 is ~2200km plus they need to maintain emergency fuel reserves and might fly a less direct path to stay near land. They are taking 2 kc130 air tankers for the trip.

http://aviationweek.com/farnborough-2014/priming-jsfs-transa...

http://www.aircalculator.com/flightplan.php?from=BZZ&from_ai...

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