Back in 2000, the most valuable fighter fly-offs in modern times took place between the Boeing X-32 and Lockheed X-35, as Gerard Keijsper explains.
It does not seem so long ago, but it is almost 30 years since the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) issued a Request for Proposals for the Advanced Short Take Off and Vertical Landing (ASTOVL) aircraft technology demonstration program in 1992. The aim was to build a supersonic STOVL fighter with an empty weight of 24,000lb, similar to the F/A-18C Hornet, to keep the weight and cost in check.
Financial constraints