On 21 Aug 2003 05:43:49 -0700, Bill Clark wrote:
I saw a PBS special on the X-plane competition between Boeing and
Lockheed for the Joint Task Force (JTF) fighter;

ITYM the JSF ("Joint Strike Fighter").

The problem is that the Pentagon requires the JTF to be vertical take
off/landing capable. By doing so they are requiring 25% of the
aircraft to be devoted to the necessary systems; in the case of the
winning Lockheed aircraft, a huge fan in the middle of the fuselage.

Granted, it's an elegant engineering accomplishment but it has zero
combat effectiveness.

Hmmm. I suspect a few FAA[1] pilots might have disagreed regarding the
combat effectiveness of the VSTOL Harrier.

Requiring all jets to be built by these
standards is suicidal because it reduces the range and payload of
every attack jet.

Most F-35s won't be built with the VTOL fan. I expect in the
others, the space will be used for extra fuel.

It's really depressing to me that our military
planners have come up with such an idiotic plan and that neither
Lockheed or Boeing made the slightest objection.

****ing off one's largest customer isn't usually good business
sense.


[1]: this acronym is deliberately ambiguous.

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