While Boeing’s X-32 also demonstrated supersonic flight and vertical landings, it did not accomplish them in the same flight.Īt Lockheed’s Martin’s production facilities in Fort Worth, employees watching the press conference erupted into cheers.
By July 2001, Lockheed’s X-35 had proven it could execute a short, 500-foot takeoff, fly at supersonic speeds and then vertically land in a single flight. It awarded contracts to Lockheed Martin and Boeing in 1996 to build competing prototypes, known as the X-35 and X-32. The Pentagon wanted to buy a single stealth aircraft for the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps capable of three distinct operational requirements: conventional landings on a runway, landing on aircraft carriers, and performing short takeoffs and vertical landings. It was a moment five years in the making. At stake: the Joint Strike Fighter competition, which would decide who would dominate the next 40 years of the defense aerospace industry - and rake in hundreds of billions in profits.
26, 2001, executives and employees from the nation’s two biggest defense primes gathered in boardrooms and sprawling production facilities to watch a Pentagon press conference. The first operational F-35 is delivered to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., on July 14, 2011.
