[Secret Agent Man]

the f-35 was given to lockheed martin for two major reasons

1 - if they didn’t get it they’d have zero military aircraft contracts

2 - boeing had done a late-stage partial redesign which made their plane work a lot better, arguably better than lockheed’s plane, but because of that, had not hit the complete testing milestones needed with those new changes in the competition/development timeframe

[FtrPilot]

the f-35 was given to lockheed martin for two major reasons:

1 - if they didn’t get it they’d have zero military aircraft contracts

That statement is simply not true.

2 - boeing had done a late-stage partial redesign which made their plane work a lot better...

Partial redesign?

They completely redesigned the wing and they added horizontal stabilizers.

Here's 2 pics of Boeing's design that they built and flew.

Here's a pic of their redesigned plane which was never built or flown.

During the flyoff, Lockheed Martin's design flew "Mission Alpha"...Short field takeoff, Burner climb to 25,000ft, Supersonic dash, vertical landing.

Boeing claimed they could demonstrate all items, however, it would take 2 flights. The inlet used for vertical landings kept the aircraft from supersonic flight. They claimed they could fix it during EMD.