The F-35

[Angrboda]

The problem with the F-35 and program's like it is that while governments are funding development there is no incentive to go to production.

In the old days, when the military wanted a new fighter they would put out a contract for tender and interested companies would put forward prototypes at their own cost.

The winning fighter would be selected for production and the company would make money from the machines they built.

Well, that points out another problem. There just are no longer enough aerospace defense contractors suitable to produce a robust competitive contracting process. There just aren't. And there's nothing the government can do about that.

[Zen Badger]

Mention of the F-35 puts me in mind of Clarence"Kelly" Johnson and his team at the Lockheed skunkworks who in the space of about six years designed,built and flew the A-11,A-12 and SR-71 Blackbird series.

An aircraft so revolutionary that nothing even 50 years later has come close.

And not only did they build this amazing aircraft but they also had to develop a whole slew of brand new technologies that were able to cope with the extreme flight conditions that the Blackbirds encountered.And all done with slide rules and paper blueprints.

And now we can't build a simple fighter using mature tech?

One wonderzzz, one does.

[Jacob(smooth)]

I know nothing about aerospace engineering but I do know that medical imaging can severely damage people's ability to make a clinical diagnosis. People get so fixated on the X rays, the Mri, the ultrasound, the vfm data etc they forget to look at the patient!

[Angrboda]

And now we can't build a simple fighter using mature tech?

One wonderzzz, one does.

I suggest watching the 60 Minutes segment on this. It actually does answer the implied question.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/f-35-joint-s...0-minutes/

[Jackalope]

I know nothing about aerospace engineering but I do know that medical imaging can severely damage people's ability to make a clinical diagnosis. People get so fixated on the X rays, the Mri, the ultrasound, the vfm data etc they forget to look at the patient!

No kidding - tell that to the team that ended up diagnosing me with plantar fasciaitis - which I did indeed have. However, the symptoms I was complaining about appeared to be neurological in nature and in any case were unrelated to the PF. Getting a specialist doc to listen to what I'm actually saying? Hopeless.