Ping to my favorite tailhooker. :)
Earlier discussion here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3222894/posts
Doesn’t look like it was too hard on the gear, but then again I’ll bet that thing was loaded light as can be for that test.
How will that techno-wonder handle it with half fuel on board, some leftover ordnance, in bad weather and rough seas, at night?
Can we even afford to risk using them on a carrier in those conditions?
Sometimes there’s no choice.
Historic because it took 13 years to get to that point.
GAO:
According to the Government Accountability Office (G.A.O.), which is relatively independent, the price tag for each F-35 was supposed to be $81 million when the program began in October 2001. Since that time, the price per plane has basically doubled, to $161 million. Full-rate production of the F-35, which was supposed to start in 2012, will not start until 2019. The Joint Program Office, which oversees the project, disagrees with the G.A.O.’s assessment, arguing that it does not break out the F-35 by variant and does not take into account what they contend is a learning curve that will drive prices down over time. They say a more realistic figure is $120 million a copy, which will go down with each production batch. Critics, like Winslow Wheeler, from the Project on Government Oversight and a longtime G.A.O. official, argue the opposite: “The true cost of the airplane—when you cast aside all the bullshit—is $219 million or more a copy, and that number is likely to go up.”