Recapping the fly-off between Boeing's X-32 and Lockheed's X-35

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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.

Boeing X-32 [Boeing]
The Boeing X-32A performed up-and-away flight demonstrations for the US Navy, as well as field carrier practice landings. Boeing

 

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Originally published in Combat Aircraft Journal

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