I don’t have much an opinion about the F-35 but one thing I have noticed:
A lot of people are mentioning Skunkworks planes like SR-71 and U-2. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Skunkworks basically built highly specialized prototypes that performed well within their intended use but were super expensive to maintain and couldn’t be deployed on a larger scale. I would compare them more to an F1 team that can build great cars quickly but need 20 people just to get them ready for a lap.
Building impressive prototypes is way easier than building something on large scale in an efficient way.
Again, I don’t know much about the F-35 but Skunkworks is not the model.
A lot of people are mentioning Skunkworks planes like SR-71 and U-2. I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Skunkworks basically built highly specialized prototypes that performed well within their intended use but were super expensive to maintain and couldn’t be deployed on a larger scale. I would compare them more to an F1 team that can build great cars quickly but need 20 people just to get them ready for a lap.
Building impressive prototypes is way easier than building something on large scale in an efficient way.
Again, I don’t know much about the F-35 but Skunkworks is not the model.