Lockheed Martin and Boeing are vying to secure the Pentagon's Joint Strike Fighter contract to develop an advanced single-engine stealth fighter. This book provides rare behind-the-scenes coverage of the competitors' designs and their performance features. 80 color illustrations.

The Boeing X-32 Concept Demonstrator Aircraft was the losing contender in the international Joint Strike Fighter program, which led to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II 5th generation strike fighter entering service with air forces on both sides of the Atlantic. This volume details the genesis of the Joint Strike Fighter program and describes the short take off and vertical landing and conventional landing variants of the X-32 design. The evolution of the X-32 into the preferred weapon system concept, which would have been the service models had fortune shone more brightly on the program, is covered, as is the development and flight test program. A chronology details the flight test program of the rival Lockheed Martin X-35. While the X-32 aircraft were retired to museums, the design heritage of which they were a part has been carried over to Boeings 6th generation fighter studies. These sixth generation fighter concepts emerging in the second decade of the 21st Century are aimed at a potential service entry sometime after 2025.

The Joint Strike Fighter is being developed and the aircraft has been ordered for the Royal Air Force/Navy, the US Air Force, US Navy and US Marine Corps. This book looks at all the many research programs that are taking place in the fields of airframe and engine design, avionics, weapons, radar, countermeasures and propulsion.

Ultimate Fighter tells how a series of little-known technology programs coalesced into a 3,000-airplane plan - the F-35 joint strike fighter (JSF). As one of the first major aircraft programs to start from scratch in the era of information technology, the JSF virtually flies itself, while the pilot manages the mission with the help of very acute high-resolution sensors and displays. The F-35 is one of the biggest single military projects in history - but it was born as a compromise between the needs of three U.S. services in the budget-strapped post-Cold War era. Author Bill Sweetman chronicles the high stakes competition between two aviation giants, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to build the Joint Strike Fighter - the next generation fighter jet.

The Lockheed Martin X-35 Concept Demonstrator Aircraft was the winning contender in the international Joint Strike Fighter program, which led to X-35 and rival Boeing X-32, both of which were demonstrated in 2000/2001, with the prize being nothing less than domination of the production of 5th generation combat aircraft for the United States and many other countries for the next few decades. The JSF program, which spawned the X-35, was borne out a number of different research programs conducted in the 1980's and 1990's. A number of programs were combined to form a core program to replace a number of different legacy aircraft types on both sides of the Atlantic. The X-35 would be further developed into the F-35 Lightning II 5th generation strike fighter, formerly known as the JSF (Joint Strike Fighter), entering service with air forces on both sides of the Atlantic. This volume details the genesis of the Joint Strike Fighter program and describes the development, manufacture and flight testing of all three variants of the X-35: the X-35A conventional take-off and landing; X-35B short take off and vertical landing and the X-35C aircraft carrier variant, along with an overview of the rival Boeing X-32 design. Chronologies detail the flight test program of the Lockheed Martin X-35 and the Boeing X-32 aircraft.

A fascinating review of the record-breaking experimental aircraft of the future currently being built and tested by the U.S. Air Force and NASA. The X-Planes, drawing on recently declassified information, is the first comprehensive book on the experimental aircraft. 335 photos and 30 scale drawings.