Well it was RR who showed me the working mock up several times and stated that it was a derivative of their good work on the Harrier…

I’m sure Rolls-Royce are proud of the development of the lift-fan for the F-35 (and rightly so) but I do not see any technical similarities between the lift-fan and the Pegasus engine and swivelling nozzles used on the Harrier. Now between the downward-pointing jet-pipe on the F-35B engine and the rear nozzles on a Harrier, yes, I’d say there were many technical similarities; maybe that is what Rolls-Royce were alluding to?

I sincerely hope the F-35B becomes an operational reality; my view is that the RN / RAF would have been better-off with that version than the F-35C. Just so long as we get one or the other!

The Lift fan is a Soviet idea, from the very over-looked Yak 41 from the 80’s…

Really? I thought the Yak-41 used ‘lift-jets’ (separate jet engines used only for the hover) as opposed to a lift-fan…

…and flying aircraft (prototypes) with lift-jets pre-date the Yak-41 by decades.