KenV
Bizzare? "We?" That's your opinion and one held by no one other than the very few "we". Certainly the program was ambitious. In the extreme. But the ambitious nature of the program was dictated by the customer, the US gov't. It was not LM's idea. The gov't demanded a single airframe for all the services despite past attempts at a one size fits all approach having failed. But the US gov't was convinced that new technology would make it possible this time around and demanded it. And a lot of smart folks from a lot of different countries agreed. Or at least agreed enough to buy into the program. Were they right?
Of course they were not right ! - any 9 year old spotter could have told them that LOL
It was not LM's idea
Agreed and to quote myself from post 6605
historically many bad concept aircraft designs have been caused by 'requirements/specifications' etc....
But LM are at fault for believing their own marketing bull$hit - the F35 has always been a really bad concept.
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....and from a technical/maintenance point of view it will be a bit of a nightmare!
Hmmmmm. That's raw speculation without the smallest bit of data to back it up. Indeed the data that is available appears to contradict it. USMC is making great progress towards IOC. And by the time RAF/RN get their F-35s, the "technical/maintenance" aspects will be largely sorted out. That's just one advantage of a joint program like this. Solving problems for one customer benefits a bunch of other customers.
I do not need data to back up anything Ken - I have been an aircraft engineer for 40+ years and I know a Turkey when I see one ; )
The technical/maintenance aspects will get worse with age because of the complexity of the airframe systems and structural issues !
All the clever technical folk will have ensured that the Turkey is nice to fly,but from an engineering point of view the F35B looks like $hit - as a taxpayer I am not impressed !!