There’s an article on hackaday [h] about a model-builder who is trying to make an ultra-realistic model F-35.
And that’s my punch-line spoiled. It says:
[Joel] wants his model to be as close as possible to the real thing
How is he going to simulate 20 years of blown schedule mileposts, and cost overruns that make it cost $150 million per plane?
Joking aside, it’s quite an accomplishment. He’s got vertical take off/landing working as well as forward flight.
Another thing he’ll have to simulate: once he’s got it mostly working, he needs to put it away and build an F/A-18 or F-16. They’re better, anyway.
Wishful thinking or not, the estimated $12 billion to rebuild Avro Arrows in Canada would have been better than the $17 billion wasted on F-35s. Arrows that don’t work would have been cheaper than F-35s that don’t work.
https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/avro-arrow-redesign-pitched-as-alternative-to-f-35-stealth-fighter-jets
It says a lot that other countries want new F-18s, not the overpriced turkey.
Intransitive@#1:
It seems to me that only the major powers that may want to go to war with other major powers need fighter jets, anyway. What they need is observation and counter-insurgency aircraft, which is mainly drones and a few loitering strike planes. I.e.: project ares.
It occurs to me that fighter jets have become the new dreadnoughts. Expensive, almost useless national status symbols. Sadly, Australia is wasting millions buying these dud fighters too.
Source : https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-25/there-arent-enough-spare-parts-for-the-joint-strike-fighter/11337686
Tangentially, well, off-topic sorry, but have you seen Scott Manley’s youtube clip about the Iranian space program here :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPTz7Ig9RQE
Quite interesting when it comes to the technical details of the Iranian space program and their progress and history.