This US Aircraft is the Most Expensive Project Ever Built: F-35 Lightning II History

Hi, welcome to the Daily Aviation Channel. I'm Mark, and the plane you see here is the F-35, the last fighter jet produced by the U.S. manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Officially named F-35 Lightning II in honor of the U.S. World War II aircraft, Lockheed P-38 Lightning, it is equipped with a single engine capable of reaching Mach 2 and is able to take off and land vertically. And although it is an aircraft with remarkable capabilities, especially in terms of stealth, the F-35 program is considered one of the most expensive in aviation history and suffered a very significant delay on its original timeline. In the early 1990s, the U.S. Department of Defense decided to launch the Joint Strike Fighter program to find a replacement, among others, for the F-16 fighter, the Fairchild A-10, the F-18 Hornet, and the AV-8B Harrier. Several companies, including Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and McDonnell Douglas, proposed their project to the Department of Defense, but only the Boeing and Lockheed Martin projects were selected in November of 1996. In the meantime, contracts were awarded for the construction of two prototypes per company. Lockheed Martin's prototype was designated X-35 and that of Boeing, X-32. The Boeing aircraft was characterized by a large air intake under the cockpit, a large delta wing, two inclined vertical tails like those of the X-35, and the absence of horizontal tailplanes. The first X-32 flight took place in September 2000 at the Edwards Air Force Base, and the short takeoff and vertical landing version made its first flight several months later in March 2001. As for the X-35, its silhouette was close to that of the F-22, which was also built by Lockheed Martin. The X-35 was also equipped with some of the F-22 technologies. It made its first flight in October 2000. The X-35 short takeoff and vertical landing version used a brand new system developed by Rolls-Royce. It was called the Integrated Lift Fan Propulsion System. The jet engine nozzle could tilt completely downward while a large fan placed just behind the cockpit allowed one to balance the machine. This version made its first flight in June 2001. The prototype testing of the two companies lasted several months, but due to the X-32's poor performance against the X-35, the Boeing project was eliminated on October 26, 2001, and the decision was made to award Lockheed Martin the design contract of the future Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. Today, a little more than 300 F-35s have been produced, and to satisfy the different branches of the U.S. defense and its allies, it was decided to produce the F-35 in three different versions. The first version is the F-35A, a versatile variant optimized for ground attack, which allowed the U.S. Air Force to replace the F-16, the A-10, and to a lesser extent the F-22. But while replacing the F-16 appears to be easily feasible, replacing the A-10 could possibly never be done entirely. Indeed, the F-35 had a very limited carrying capacity compared to the A-10, which has eight points of carriage under its wings and which, unlike the F-35, can drop a wide variety of weapons. Also, in terms of ground attack capability, the F-35 may never be able to reach the level of the A-10, which is equipped with the famous 30mm GAU-8A Avenger anti-tank gun. And unlike the A-10, the F-35 does not have armor, which makes it vulnerable when attacking at a very low altitude. The second version of the F-35 is the F-35B, a variant able to take off and land vertically. As for the X-35B prototype, it had a vertically integrated fan in the fuselage near the rear of the cockpit, as well as a jet engine nozzle that could be steered downward. The vertical fan is connected to the F-35 jet engine by a driveshaft. Some of the F-35's vertical technologies were developed with the help of the Russian company Yakovlev, based on the Yak-141 aircraft technologies. The F-35B is the first mass-produced Stoval aircraft to reach supersonic speed. But because of the vertical fan position, the internal fluid capacity is significantly lower than that of the F-35A, greatly reducing the F-35B's carrying capacity and autonomy. The latest version of the F-35 is the F-35C, a version made to operate on aircraft carriers and intended primarily for the U.S. Navy. This version has a greater wingspan than the F-35A and F-35B, which allows it to carry more fuel. The landing gear has been reinforced to support catapulting from an aircraft carrier, and the wingtips can be retracted to take up less space. The first successful aircraft carrier landing of the F-35C took place in November 2014, aboard the USS Nimitz. The F-35C should replace the first versions of the U.S. Navy F-18 Hornet. That's the end of this video, I hope you liked it. If you haven't done so yet, don't hesitate to subscribe to the Daily Aviation Channel, it's free. You can also watch my other videos, and if you like my work, you can support me on Patreon to help me produce more content. Thanks and stay tuned for the next video!