When Bob Cox, probably the biggest untainted critic of the F-35 program says that its ahead of schedule and appears to be gaining momentum, then everyone should pay attention. Follow this link to read the whole story.
Lockheed flew the ninth of the initial 13 flight-testing jets recently, counting the original prototype, which has already been retired.
By week's end, the test program had completed 146 flights this year compared with the 128 planned, a pace that, if, sustained, would enable the full-year goal of 394 flights to be met or exceeded.
Another measure of progress is the number of specific tests (test points) achieved: 1,438 completed compared with 1,255 planned.
All of which means that if F-35 testing continues at the current pace through the rest of this year, it will be just about where it was supposed to be at the end of 2009
Which means that 2009 won't be a lost year and that by the middle of 2011 the program should be right back on its pre-breach schedule!
What, the additional resources and airframes the program is investing in, is actually starting to pay off and the flight test schedule is catching up?
ReplyDeleteTo quote Luke Skywalker: "NOOooo! That's impossible..." Eric Palmer, Peter Goon and Bill Sweetman etc all told us it couldn't be done...
(Looks around furtively,) they, they couldn't have been wrong, could they? I mean, they write so often about the problems besetting the F-35 program, could it be, that, THEY in fact have exactly ZERO insight into this program, beyond whatever they are told in public press releases and that while they sit around smugly predicting the end of the world because of the "folly" of the F-35 program, the program itself has just cracked on with it's work?
Sounds a bit hard to believe, doesn't it? I mean Goon uses such pretty colours in his pie-graphs, Eric so often points out the blatantly obvious and Sweetman speculates and completely pulls his points out of his posterior, how could they be wrong???
oh i'm right there with ya. i can't wait to read ARES to see what there view of this story is...but i won't hold my breath for a 'fair and balanced' view.
ReplyDeleteAhead of schedule?
ReplyDeleteThe Israeli seems to think otherwise.
A lot of our allies are worried.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=181134
sorry but if the Israeli's want to buy a different airplane then awesome...go for it.
ReplyDeleteTyphoon, Rafale, whatever...i really don't care....so what there opinion of the schedule is is really irrelevant.
i'm a supporter but they're becoming tiresome. and they seem to be developing a serious 'we deserve it attitude'....its becoming hard to support a nation that's doing as much America bashing as the rest of the world....
The Israelis are still finagling to see if they can get a more advantageous deal for themselves.
ReplyDeleteOR that what you see is a smoke screen.
ReplyDeleteA PR tactics, a pacifier from LMT to the gullible.
This is an ironic twist of things. Who knows, perhaps recent Russian moves made them speed things up. No more bullshit on the matter though, the F-35 has allot of potential buyers to convince to stick with it.
ReplyDeleteF-35 cops a lot flack for development delays - but as I recall it is no worse than the F-22 whose X moodel first flew in 89/90 but did not reach IOC until about '05. The Eurofighter X-model first flew about '86 and did not reach IOC - in only a limited air-air mode - until about '04. The Rafael was not much different.
ReplyDeleteYet I cannot recall Bill Sweetman et al giving anything like the grief to those earlier fighters that they now give to the F-35. And before someone tells me that the F-35 is much bigger program, the issue here is development cos' once development is completed, the production ccosts usually come down e.g. F-22.
you're exactly right Steve. at least Bill has come out and said that he's a critic because he's worried about the European aviation industry (or something to that effect) but the rest of the "Goons" out there aren't being honest at all.
ReplyDeletethey harp on the F-35 while trying to get every ounce of technology planned for that plane retrofitted into not only the F-35 but F-18s, Typhoons, Gripens, Rafales etc...for the plane to be a dog, a whole lot of people want to play with its toys.
but most of all the development issue is the most stunning. thanks for digging up those dates...i think it deserves a post all its own.