X-32 Joint Strike Fighter

The F-35 is no prize from an aesthetic point of view, lacking the sleek, dangerous lines of the F-22, but the X-32 made the F-35 look positively sexy by comparison. How much should this matter? Not a bit. How much did it matter? Good question. Fighter pilots don't like to fly aircraft that look like they could be ...

... test for the Joint Strike Fighter program's System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. This last flight test marks the beginning of the end of the SDD phase, which started 2001 when Lockheed's X-35 prototypes triumphed over Boeing's ungainly X-32 concept aircraft after a hotly contested fly-off.

Could Boeing be out of the fighter business in the near future? ... A big reason is that Boeing's entry for a new Joint Strike Fighter, the X-32, lost that competition. A 2014 ... The Navy and Air Force are reportedly planning a sixth-generation fighter in the FA-XX project, but that may still be years into the future.

Could Boeing be out of the fighter business in the near future? That question has been kicking around in recent years as air forces are looking to advanced planes like the Lockheed F-35 Lightning or for cheaper options like the Saab Gripen. A big reason is that Boeing's entry for a new Joint Strike Fighter, the X-32, lost that ...

As is the case with the X-32, the YF-23 never faced the most dramatic problems to afflict the F-22 Raptor. It never experienced cost overruns, ... The Advanced Tactical Fighter (ATF) competition, staged at the end of the Cold War, yielded a pair of remarkable fighter designs. The United States would ...

The Department of Defense (DoD) didn't have to opt for the F-35. In the 1990s, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin bid for the next big fighter contract, a plane that would serve in each of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as grace the air forces of many US allies. Boeing served up the X-32; ...

Built to the same specifications, the X-32 and the F-35 had relatively similar performance parameters. Deciding to compete on cost, Boeing designed the X-32 around a single-piece delta wing that would fit all three variants. The X-32 lacked the shaft-driven turbofan lift of the F-35, instead using the same ...

As is the case with the X-32, the YF-23 never faced the most dramatic problems to afflict the F-22 Raptor. ... The origins of the ATF competition came in the early 1980s, when it became apparent that the Soviets were planning to field fighters (the MiG-29 and the Su-27) capable of competing effectively with ...

When Lockheed Martin's X-35 beat the Boeing X-32 to win the trillion-dollar Joint Strike Fighter program in 2001, Boeing might have thought its days in the fighter business were numbered. Sixteen years later, Boeing's F-15 and F/A-18 appear to have survived the stealth craze of the past two decades that ...

In October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin's X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing's X-32. The win secured Lockheed's future as the manufacturer for all of America's fifth-generation fighter platforms. But Lockheed's resultant F-35 has suffered ...

One of the main reasons why Lockheed Martin's design was selected over Boeing's was because the X-32's direct lift system—which uses engine thrust to lift the aircraft—is prone to pop stalls. That's a phenomenon where hot exhaust gases are reingested into the engine causing a power loss. There were ...

Would Boeing have done any better? Hard to say—the Joint Strike Fighter was always a technically challenging and extraordinarily ambitious program. It is likely that Boeing would have run into similar but different technical and budgetary problems. In October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense ...

The Department of Defense (DoD) didn't have to opt for the F-35. In the 1990s, both Boeing and Lockheed Martin bid for the next big fighter contract, a plane that would serve in each of the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps, as well as grace the air forces of many US allies. Boeing served up the X-32; ...

In October 26, 2001, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that Lockheed Martin's X-35 had won the Joint Strike Fighter contest over Boeing's X-32. The win secured Lockheed's future as the manufacturer for all of America's fifth-generation fighter platforms. But Lockheed's resultant F-35 has suffered ...

The X-32's direct lift system also demanded that the fighter incorporate that basking shark-esque air intake under its chin; otherwise the main engine wouldn't get enough air when hovering. Due to the excessive weight of the delta wing, Boeing had to exhibit the plane's supersonic flight and STOVL ...