The Joint Strike Fighter: A plane for all reasons

The X-35 JSF will be a supersonic bomber, a stealthy fighter, and a short-take-off, vertically landing warplane flown by U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marine pilots, as well as the British armed forces. U.S. Marines will be able to land and take-off vertically with the JSF The Pratt & Whitney engine for the JSF is tested in full afterburner. The Air Force version of the JSF will have a refueling port located behind the canopy. The Navy and Marine versions, following tradition, will have a probe that extends to engage the refueling hose. A lift fan is being installed in a JSF airframe. The main engine turns the counter-rotating blades in the fan by a shaft and clutch to generate 18,000 lb of vertical thrust. The JSF's clean undercarriage and internally carried weapons reduce the plane's radar signature. The JSF flies beside another aircraft as it undergoes flight testing. The JSF tests its hover capability over a grated pit. Clam-shell doors aft of the cockpit on top of the fuselage are opened to let air into the lift fan and the rear nozzle is angled down for vertical thrust. When it comes to developing and buying military aircraft, the armed services don't like to share. The Navy needs jets that land and take off from aircraft carriers, the Air Force wants all the speed and performance it can afford, and the Marines cite their need to support ground operations from forward airbases. Designing aircraft for specific arms of the service wasn't a problem during the Cold War when the enemy was well defined, defense funding was high, and planes like the F-16 and F-15 cost a paltry $30 million/copy or less. Today, however, with a host of potential bad guys — none in the superpower category — and funding tighter than