The requirements of a commercial airliner are a lot different than those of a cutting edge fighter jet. The F-35 ejection seat is too powerful and might injure smaller pilots, sure. But if I’m flying in contested airspace with enemy air defenses and fighter jets trying to shoot at me, I’d still feel a lot safer in an F-35 than in an Airbus.
There has been a lot of FUD about the F-35 spread around the press, but a surprising amount of this FUD comes straight from Boeing. You see, Boeing makes the Super Hornet, and every F-35 sale Lockheed Martin makes is a potential Super Hornet sale that Boeing has lost. Don’t get me wrong, the Super Hornet is an awesome fighter, but despite what Boeing would have you think, it doesn’t come close to the capabilities of an F-35.
Obviously I would much prefer my country and its allies to buy fighter jets from some perfect aerospace company that makes completely flawless aircraft, even when those aircraft contain groundbreaking innovations at the bleeding edge of what is technically possible. Fingers crossed that enough lessons were learned that when NGAD comes out, it’s a lot faster and smoother than the F-35 process, but this stuff is hard for everyone and for all the deserved criticism that the American military-industrial complex gets, nobody else in the world actually does a better job of making fighter jets.
The requirements of a commercial airliner are a lot different than those of a cutting edge fighter jet. The F-35 ejection seat is too powerful and might injure smaller pilots, sure. But if I’m flying in contested airspace with enemy air defenses and fighter jets trying to shoot at me, I’d still feel a lot safer in an F-35 than in an Airbus.
There has been a lot of FUD about the F-35 spread around the press, but a surprising amount of this FUD comes straight from Boeing. You see, Boeing makes the Super Hornet, and every F-35 sale Lockheed Martin makes is a potential Super Hornet sale that Boeing has lost. Don’t get me wrong, the Super Hornet is an awesome fighter, but despite what Boeing would have you think, it doesn’t come close to the capabilities of an F-35.
Obviously I would much prefer my country and its allies to buy fighter jets from some perfect aerospace company that makes completely flawless aircraft, even when those aircraft contain groundbreaking innovations at the bleeding edge of what is technically possible. Fingers crossed that enough lessons were learned that when NGAD comes out, it’s a lot faster and smoother than the F-35 process, but this stuff is hard for everyone and for all the deserved criticism that the American military-industrial complex gets, nobody else in the world actually does a better job of making fighter jets.