Inside the Joint Strike Fighter Competition

jonerik writes "The June issue of the Atlantic Monthly has this account of the history of the Joint Strike Fighter competition between Boeing and Lockheed Martin (which the latter company ended up winning this past fall, with Boeing now touting its expanding line of unmanned aircraft as the true future of tactical aviation). The article does a fine job of showing how the competitors dealt with the challenge of producing an aircraft (now dubbed the F-35) that the Air Force, Navy, Marines, RAF, and Royal Navy could all live with. Funniest part: Boeing's X-32 entry, with its enormous pelican-like jet intake, had some questioning whether the plane's bizarre appearance didn't hurt its chances more than its performance. 'Helpful as my contacts at Boeing were, no one was eager to claim credit for the design of the plane,' says the article's writer James Fallows." Fascinating article.

Comments

Thats great...

[sheepab]

Thats great but I still dont have my flying car, or the super smart robot that does all my homework that was promised back in the 50's to be here by now.

On Articles About Military Technology

[Vidmaster_Steve]

THIS ARTICLE BLATANTLY OFFENDS MY FINE LIBERAL SENSIBILITIES! For I was educated at one of the greatest colleges in the world, and therefore my intellect has far surpassed yours, and frankly, this article, this blatant grandizing of the Military Industrial Complex just makes me sick. Haven't we gotten to an era of peace and understanding in which we needn't construct these brutal weapons of mass destruction to fight a people whose belief structure and society are, granted different from ours, but no less wholesome? Sure, I campained for womyn's rights, despite my having a penis, I was called "rapist," "demagogue" and even "dildo substitute" but dammit, it was a small price to pay for equal treatment here at Berkely!
For shame, Slashdot. Your unabashed conservative leanings in this posting bring your true colors to the forefront. I was once a proud reader of this nest of liberal propaganda, but NO MORE. I'll take my reading minutes to MSNBC, thank you very much. At least they're OBJECTIVE about the news...

Fucking liberals. Hey, dicklickers, QUIT FAGGING UP MY SLASHDOT. Last time I checked, I was reading this site long before this place became a haven of liberal, military technology bashing hippies. Every time that there's a post regarding (way fucking cool, BTW) military tech, there's always a slew, a slurry, if you will, of posts that GET MODDED UP FOR SOME UNKNOWN FUCKING REASON that simultaneously decry the act of building newer and better technologies (that, SOO-PRIZE SOO-PRIZE! benefit the Civilian Sector every time) and the fact that someone out there has a bit more than one-hunnert eye kyoo points and finds these things intriguing.

Bah, Socia^H^H^H^H^H Liberals have fagged this once Great Website up almost beyond the point of repair.

Re:On Articles About Military Technology

[bashibazouk]

So...are you liberal or conservative? You are not quoting anyone...odd.

My guess, those horrible liberals succeeded in their plot to deprive you of a proper (up to hate radio standards) liberal rant to reply to so you made up your own. One would think that someone from one of the "greatest colleges in the world" would write a little better.

The funny thing about these rants is "liberal" seems to be used in place of a logical argument. I hate to break it to you, but to a liberal, "liberal" is far from an insult and so over used as to be totally meaningless.

From someone who is typically (but not always) a little left of liberal, I find this plane cool. We need new weapons, otherwise video games might stagnate :)

Of course I'm probably just responding to troll bait. D'OH.