SSSETOWTF -
Good rant but misses the main point: Flight testing has set an all-time slow record, and an unprecedented surge is essential to even hit the revised schedule.
LM and the JSFPO have been talking for years about how modelling and simulation and labs have reduced the risk and uncertainty in flight test, but that argument is rather undercut when in actual fact they can't successfully predict their own schedules three months ahead.
Mach 1.05. On one sortie. With an airplane with different vertical and horizontal stabilizers and flaperons.
And the last time I looked, Dr Gates didn't report to Bill Sweetman, so presumably he had his own reasons for booting the program director.
Last edited by LowObservable; 4th Mar 2010 at 14:19.