Big government is expensive government, bureaucratic government, inefficient government, and corrupt government
in WWII, the US developed, tested, built and deployed the best and most advanced fighter plane the world had ever seen, in a span of about 6 years (starting in 1937-38).
The P-51 cost today’s equivalent of about $650,000 per copy and 15,000 were built. Herman Georing, head of Hitler’s Luftwaffe said: “when I saw P-51’s over Berlin, I knew the game was up.”
F-35 sounds like a bureaucratic, military-industrial, lobbyist, crony-capitalist screw-job on the American public and the American fighting man.
The P-51 cost today’s equivalent of about $650,000 per copy and 15,000 were built.
True, true. But the A-1, A-6, A-10 could fly further, faster, and land more bombs more accurately than the B-17, B-24, or B-29. And drop them more accurately in the dark and bad weather (sevral missions per day if needed!) with only 1 or 2 crewmwn.
B-17 needed 10 men flying, 10 repairing, and had one mission every three days. If that.