The coating is not a major cost factor when compared to the rest of the aircraft, though it is also constantly being improved. The current iteration is more durable and costs less than earlier production blocks, and far exceeds those parameters when compared to the F-22.

Also, the coating has uses than radar absorption…

The real shame with the F-35 program was the insistence on the same basic airframe from all three planes. All three are compromised as a result, although the “B” model is just about the best damn VTSOL fighter you could imagine, and turns the Gator Navy fleet into legis aircraft carriers.

I am an LM engineer.

Two of the biggest problems with the F-35 are related to each other. Concurrency and moving goalposts. The F-35 requirements changed (and still are changing), constantly, while getting more complicated. That not only adds to the overall development cost and timeline...it adds to the costs of…

Using how much coverage there is on something to determine its importance is a terrible metric, and if that’s what you are using to evaluate people’s commentary, I can’t imagine how confused you are at this point.

The F-35B is, undisputably, the best VTOL fighter available today.

but that’s a function not only of its incredible complexity but also the Pentagon’s incredible risk aversion in the post-teen fighters era.

A lot of F-35 criticism has sounded like someone walking up to the frame of a house under construction and being appalled at how bad a house it is at that very moment. News flash: jet fighters take a while and are expensive.

Good of you to cite the accident rates of previous fighters. A lot of FA readers are probably too young to remember the F-16's early years being almost entirely a story of how they earned the “lawn dart” nickname and the public discourse learning what “G-LOC” meant. The F-35 has had a long, difficult gestation, but…

Is that a modified trashbag he is wearing?

Even more impressive than that play was the fact that surgeons in Nashville were able to graft Mike Vrabel’s head onto Rex Ryan’s body.

But why male models?

Fucking sign him up Ravens.  His issues are peanuts compared to the shit you have tolerated from a whole host of players and would be the first good receiver in franchise history who we got before he joined the AARP.  

Josh, Pats on the phone. Guaranteed 24 hr. workout.

They get one tie and think they’re too good for him now.

I still don’t get why you didn’t donate 6,500 pairs of Nikes to a homeless vet who can burn them to cook his dinner.

That joke’s barely good enough for one handle. Paper scissors rock, loser changes their name to “JoeBidenHisTime”.

The Washington Post has an article today to “debunk” the rumor that there are sharks in Hurricane Florence. People are really fucking dumb, what can you do?

Uh, wrong. Wing mirrors do have issues:

That was my first thought...this doesn’t look much different from a mirror besides there being a camera in its place. I don’t know why they didn’t do something more like this

They really can’t figure out a way to do this without a giant camera arm sticking out?