@Battle GT
Actually it kind of is, production models have been handed off to the services, but they’re being used to prepare training and such so they’re not technically in squadron service.
Still at this point over 60 have been built that’s actually more fighters then entirety of many countries air forces which kind of shows the sheer scope of the program. They’re looking to build THOUSANDS of these things, the original timeline was probably always overly optimistic for such a huge program.
Rainbow Dash would be an SR-71, or at least a MiG-25.
That said, the F-35 is doing quite well considering it’s actually three planes. It’s still way under the cost of three separate planes that can do everything it can do, and ahead of the time curve of designing three planes sequentially. Nothing being said against it is new. The same exact things were said about everything that came after the F-86 Sabrejet, because the same broken procurement and funding process caused the same delays and cost overruns then, as they’re causing now.
On another note, they re-designed the F-35B’s lift fan inlet door a few years back into a single aft-hinge design, rather than the original double-door design seen in this picture. While the new design is heavier, it reduces flow distortion and improves lift fan performance enough to justify the additional mass.
have they been useful/used in any situation so far? seems like age of playing around with UAVs and not so much of fighter jets. (I don’t know much on military news though)
Actually it kind of is, production models have been handed off to the services, but they’re being used to prepare training and such so they’re not technically in squadron service.
Still at this point over 60 have been built that’s actually more fighters then entirety of many countries air forces which kind of shows the sheer scope of the program. They’re looking to build THOUSANDS of these things, the original timeline was probably always overly optimistic for such a huge program.
That said, the F-35 is doing quite well considering it’s actually three planes. It’s still way under the cost of three separate planes that can do everything it can do, and ahead of the time curve of designing three planes sequentially. Nothing being said against it is new. The same exact things were said about everything that came after the F-86 Sabrejet, because the same broken procurement and funding process caused the same delays and cost overruns then, as they’re causing now.
Not that we know of, at least…