Originally Posted by ORAC
The lesson learnt is that the common airframe concept was a disaster
I'm not so sure that a common airframe is that bad of an idea as long as the emphasis remains on
common, the F35 is certainly not the way to go with very substantial differences in weight, wingarea, fuel-load and propulsion systems leading to 3 competing ideas for 1 common airframe.
The RAFALE however seems to have done it as it was intended to be, basically the same frame with very similar performances and weights, tons of commonality and a truely allround fighter/attack platform, discipline seems to be the keyword here.