F-35C BuNo 168842 of the VX-9 “Vampires”
F-35C mirror finished
he new F-35C, with a mirror-like coating, was photographed last week upon its arrival at Naval Base Ventura County (NBVC) Point Mugu, California, adding to the one spotted earlier this year (XE-100), flying through of the low-level Sidewinder Trail in Sequoia National Park. Like the first, the aircraft has been assigned to the US Navy’s Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine (VX-9) from the China Naval Air Weapons Station.
The F-35C XE-105 will apparently support multiple test exercises, the Navy announced where about 50 aircraft will fly daily missions from August 22 to September 2. The Navy also states that the purpose of this exercise is to provide unit-level training for pilots and aircrew in the Point Sea area.
the F-35’s coating of radar-absorbing material plays a very important role in the aircraft’s ability to drastically reduce the range at which radars—especially those associated with fire control—can detect and watch them. When we analyzed the history of the Nellis-based ‘mirrored Raptor’, we noticed that the finish is distinctly unique, consisting of a mosaic of small custom tiles in some places and large leaf-like surfaces in others, acting more as a coating than an investment.
The general arrangement of the metal plating on this F-35C is almost identical to what we’ve seen on the F-22, including the scalloped mid-wing tips. These new images show something new – that the coating appears to be translucent, allowing jet markings to be seen beneath the coating, but only from certain angles. This makes sense considering how the coating goes from polished to matte to somewhat glossy depending on which way you look at it.
You can see in the photos above and the one below how the round mark on the wing literally disappears as the aircraft goes vertical and reappears. It actually transitions from looking dark to light, almost becoming a negative in itself. Also, the nose markings are fully visible as is the VX-9 logo on the tail. Another photo we reviewed from another photographer of this jet on the same day also shows this, with the entire aircraft looking shiny from the square view, but the logos appearing as dark outlines. It is also possible that the logos were applied as part of this coating and functioned similarly to it as a result.
From a modeling point of view, I don’t have any technical information to give you. This is the future of the 6th generation fighters