Well, to correct my brother, not all were royal navy, but some of them were.
My vote was for the lockheed design as well.
It has shorter landing gear which is better for carrier operations (shorter ought to mean sturdier). Boeing unfortunatly put thiers in the wings and has to get past that rather large belly of the X-32. they were also retracted into the main body of the plane, which would seem to me allow the wing use more space/weight for more bombs (always a good thing : ) ).
The hover system on the X-35 has 2 points of lift, "front" and back. The X-32 does have 2 points as well. but they are right next to each at the center of gravity making for less stability, and more work for the balance nozzles. Lift a book by the edges and then by the middle, which are you more likely to drop (read: crash)?
Now I did like the thrust vectoring ability of the X-32. And reliability of a simpler hover system is nice, but so is longer range. The X-35 has either a more efficiant hover or a fuel tank witch means it can fly farther on the same gallon of gas.
As for stealth, I think the X-35 was probably still stealthier than the re-worked X32 prefered weapon concept.
Boeing has the F-18E/F as well as the B-2, B-1B, the on the way out the B-52(?) and F-15.
Lockheed has the F-22, JSF/F-35, F-117, and on the way out the F-16.
If someone gets laid off at boeing, Probably they could get a job at lockheed.
[ 10-27-2001: Message edited by: LtFrans ]
