Warplanes: March 28, 2003

Archives

The U.S. Air Forces new F-35 (Joint Strike Fighter) is moving from prototype to production and serious weight gain problems have been  encountered. The aircraft is supposed to have a maximum take off weight of 25 tons. But as designers checked that all portions of the aircraft were strong enough to deal with every maneuver the aircraft is meant to handle, it was found that many structural elements would have to be stronger. The prototype aircraft are not built as strongly as the final production model, and some weight gain is expected in the final version. But in this case, the F-35 might end up being five tons heavier. Even if this is avoided, this will put more pressure on the air force to switch more quickly to using a larger proportion of unmanned aircraft. 

 

X

ad

Help Keep Us From Drying Up

We need your help! Our subscription base has slowly been dwindling.

Each month we count on your contribute. You can support us in the following ways:

  1. Make sure you spread the word about us. Two ways to do that are to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
  2. Subscribe to our daily newsletter. We’ll send the news to your email box, and you don’t have to come to the site unless you want to read columns or see photos.
  3. You can contribute to the health of StrategyPage.
Subscribe   contribute   Close