Me and the F-35

[beau32]

Here is a picture of me and my crew when AF-03 made its 100th flight. The guy in the orange overall's is the pilot.
Im in the white LSU hat

[Gman]

Awesome pics, thanks for sharing.  Thanks for the work you and your compadres are doing as well, the F35 gets a lot of flak from the  media and everywhere else, it's important to not forget that our soldiers and airmen are working hard to make this thing a success and help to continue our air dominance in the future.

Hey Beau, I just posted in the other F35 thread about the 2002 Nova special on the F32/F35 contest done ten years ago.  Were you around back then working on the XF35?

[beau32]

No, I have only been on the program for a little over a year. Was in the Air Force 10 years before that.

We have accomplished alot here at Edwards with the F-35. Yeah, it catches alot of Flak, but I say unless your actually in the program and see how things are going, then what you say is really just hear say......

Besides this is a great airplane to work on, quite easy as a matter of fact maintenance wise.

[Bodhi]

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

Not to be rude, but how versed are you on the existing cost overruns or the larger than being reported life cycle cost per airframe?

[beau32]

Its all good bodhi,

We all know its going to be expensive for this, even us in the program are aware of this. But being this program is still in its early stages, its hard to say what the final price tag will be. I guess I am bias towards it as this program is a job for me and allows me to pay the bills. But its not a bad plane at all, just got a long way to go for it to get to where it should be.....

[AAJagerX]

Awesome!  Thanks for posting!   

[Bodhi]

Its all good bodhi,

We all know its going to be expensive for this, even us in the program are aware of this. But being this program is still in its early stages, its hard to say what the final price tag will be. I guess I am bias towards it as this program is a job for me and allows me to pay the bills. But its not a bad plane at all, just got a long way to go for it to get to where it should be.....

I appreciate the response Beau and I understand your direction, it's just very hard for me to envision the country being able to afford a projected $1.5 trillion cost over the life time when the projected cost of procurement is already 5 - 6 time it's original estimate.  As an example of one of the worries of this project, is it takes only one or two more nations to buckle to economic pressures and cancel orders and the next thing you know the costs are even higher.  That is not even considering production delays or hardships.  One offs are one thing, an assembly line is another.

[beau32]

I thnk it would be hard for anyone to envision paying that much over the life of any program.

[PR3D4TOR]

"Robling said the F-35 was also the first big Pentagon weapons program to be evaluated using a 50-year lifetime cost estimate -- about 20 years longer than most programs -- which made the program seem artificially more expensive.

Daniel Goure of the Lexington Institute has said that using the same methodology over the same period, the current fleet of tactical fighters such as the F-16 and F/A-18s would require spending $4 trillion on operation and sustainment.

The Pentagon estimates it will cost about $30,000 per hour to operate the F-35, in large part due to the cost of fuel."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/26/us-lockheed-fighter-idUSTRE81P0RV20120226


I'd take a hit of $1.5 trillion over $4 trillion any day.

[Nypsy]

You have a great job.

Since I have nothing good to say about the F-35 I will say nothing.

[Skuzzy]

Just a side note.  One of the main reasons the cost of this plane has escalated so bad is due to the original pricing being based on X number of planes ordered.  Since the original estimates, the number of planes ordered has been cut dramatically, which drives the cost per plane up.  The amount of money spent on development is fixed, no matter how many are ordered.  That cost will be recovered.

[MachFly]

 



BTW to those of you that don't like the F-35, ask yourselfs this, if someone was to offer you to fly one would you refuse?

[eagl]

BTW to those of you that don't like the F-35, ask yourselfs this, if someone was to offer you to fly one would you refuse?

For fun, yea I'd fly it.  In combat, I'd rather take my trusty F-15E.  F-35 is going to turn into a fine light attack fighter, but that's all it will ever be.  It's a front-aspect stealthy F-16 with newer gadgets, and trying to make it do everything is part of what is driving up costs.  A small fighter that you're going to build thousands of should probably cost a bit less, IMHO.

The pictures are pretty cool though

I still want to see a 2-seat strike version of the F-22.  If they placed rigorous limits on the design requirements, they could probably do it at a reasonable cost while improving reliability.  Start from some realistic requirements and re-use tech proven in the F-22 and F-35, and then they'd have a real F-15 replacement.  Just don't add ANYTHING that has to be developed from scratch.  Again, IMHO.  Will we do it?  Doubtful, unless we get into a real shooting war and realize we really do need a deep strike fighter.  Again.

[MachFly]

In combat...

Well that's a different story 

[Reaper90]

........... and then they'd have a real F-15 replacement.  

There will never be a replacement for the awesomeness that is the F-15.....

Just sayin'