[Petronski]

I think you hit the nail on the head. I too watched the program and enjoyed it capitally (though I must admit to looking up the ending soon after the film began), and I believe the final factors for the Pentagon's selection of Lockheed were two-fold:

(a) the Lockheed craft was able to land vertically AND exceed Mach with the same configuration.
(b) the Boeing craft was butt-ugly.

[ZinGirl]

the Boeing craft was butt-ugly.

LOL....and it took the JSF team a few years to figure out how to come up with the right wording to let Boeing down easy without saying, "but it's so ugly....there is NO WAY we want to look at that for 40 years".

[ffusco]

DESIGN CRITERIA JSF:
(a) the Lockheed craft was able to land vertically AND exceed Mach with the same configuration.
(b) the Boeing craft was butt-ugly.


As read in Janes Defense Review? LOL