That problem – It was pretty ugly: The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program is the Department of Defence’s (DoD) centerpiece for defining affordable, next-generation strike aircraft weapon systems for the Navy, Air Force, Marines, and our allies. The DoD created this joint program charter to bring the Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps together to reduce the costs of future strike warfare concepts by maturing and transitioning advanced technologies, components, and processes.
During the JSF competition, the choice was between Lockheed’s F-35 and Boeing’s X-32, and there was a lot of money at stake—a lot of money. The winner would not only get the military aircraft contract, but it would also achieve Top-Dog status in the US defense contractor export business.
Nova was granted unheard-of access and filmed a superb documentary between the two competitors. It is about two hours long but well worth it.
We all know that Lockheed won the competition, and the F-35 has become the go-to export aircraft for US allies and partners worldwide. The United States operates about 630 F-35s, producing more than 1,130 F-35s overall. Japan is by far the biggest customer, with 147 F-35s. That IS a lot of money.
But what about Boeing’s X-32?
Meet The F-35’s Ugly Stepsister, The X-32
According to the National Museum of the Air Force, the Boeing X-32 was a Concept Demonstrator Aircraft (CDA) built as a multi-purpose jet fighter in the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) contest, which started in 1996.
Boeing built two variants, the X-32A and X-32B, which together performed Conventional Take-Off and Landings (CTOL), Short Take-Off and Vertical Landings (STOVL), and as a Carrier Variant (CV).
First flying in September 2000, the X-32 made 66 flights during its four months of testing. These flights demonstrated the aircraft’s handling qualities for inflight refueling, weapons bay operations, and supersonic flight.
The X-32 had only a crew of one pilot and was powered by a Pratt & Whitney JSF119-614 afterburning turbofan of approx—50,000 pounds of thrust, pushing the aircraft to a top speed of Mach 1.6.
The Vertical Landings proved the difference, as the Lockheed Martin X-35 performed much better in that competition stage as its advanced lift fan and exhaust system provided a crucial technological advantage.
Boeing’s Test Pilot Speaks Out
In an interview, retired Navy Commander Phillip “Rowdy” Yates, a former Naval aviator, served as the test pilot for the Boeing team and said he was thrilled.
Yates said the chance to test the X-32 was the high point of his career as a test pilot. “Dream come true. You can use all those trite phrases. A lot of my peers and contemporaries were probably pretty jealous of what I was able to do with the X-32. I don’t know how to say it any better than just that it was the highlight of my career.”
He was most involved with testing how the aircraft responded during carrier approaches and evaluating the handling properties of the X-32.
“Did it feel like an airplane you’d want to take to the boat?” Yates was asked by a retired naval aviator.
“That’s exactly the comment I made,” Yates responded.
“They had leveraged F-18 handling qualities and control laws extensively for the X-32. Having flown the F-18 at the ship, that was the comment I made after just a couple of FCLP [Field Carrier Landing Practice], what we could call bounce periods, that I would take that aircraft to the ship tomorrow.
“It was handling that smoothly and precisely. I could make fine corrections, I could make gross corrections back to the centerline, back to the glide path. There were no issues with the handling qualities with the X-32 that I flew,” Yates added.
And there was the aesthetic value. The X-35 looks like a fighter plane. At certain angles, the X-32 looked like a smiling hippo. “Boeing knew they had a problem with that, if you will, and to address it, they had a little mantra that said, ‘Look, you’re taking it to war, not to the senior prom.’ That got a lot of traction.”
However, some components of the X-32 have been kept and used. The “JSF Array” radar developed for the X-32 became the basis for the Raytheon AN/APG-79 radar that flies on board the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet and the EA-18G Growler EW aircraft.
One area in which Boeing would have outperformed Lockheed Martin is in production. We’d probably see more aircraft available if they had gotten the contract.
About the Author: Steve Balestrieri
Steve Balestrieri is a 19FortyFive National Security Columnist. He served as a US Army Special Forces NCO and Warrant Officer. In addition to writing for 19FortyFive, he covers the NFL for PatsFans.com and is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA). His work was regularly featured in many military publications.
