Reply to post: "Yes it is. But when did that ever actually work?"

Blighty's buying another 17 F-35s, confirms the American government

Anonymous Coward
Anonymous Coward

"Yes it is. But when did that ever actually work?"

It worked (for the fighter/attack role) only in airplanes designed without imposing limitations to speed, weight, costs, etc.

Whenever USAF hoped to get a multirole cheap airplane, it got a lame duck. It also got lame ducks when it asked for airplanes bringing to the extreme a single capability (look at the -10x planes....). In the '60s, it had to get a Navy model because all of its designs were failures.

Later, it wanted to force the Navy to share its F-111, which was unfit as a carrier plane, and the need to use its engines anyway made the F-14A far less powerful.

The bottom line: USAF should not be allowed to write plane specs. Unluckily, it got too much power in the Pentagon, and it usual internal fights among USAF branches will deliver the usual bad plane.

I'm afraid the F-35 will be one of these.

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