X-32: The Boeing Joint Strike Fighter (Research & Development Aircraft) (Volume 2)

The Boeing X-32 Concept Demonstrator Aircraft was the losing contender in the international Joint Strike Fighter program, which led to the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II 5th generation strike fighter entering service with air forces on both sides of the Atlantic. This volume details the genesis of the Joint Strike Fighter program and describes the short take off and vertical landing and conventional landing variants of the X-32 design. The evolution of the X-32 into the preferred weapon system concept, which would have been the service models had fortune shone more brightly on the program, is covered, as is the development and flight test program. A chronology details the flight test program of the rival Lockheed Martin X-35. While the X-32 aircraft were retired to museums, the design heritage of which they were a part has been carried over to Boeings 6th generation fighter studies. These sixth generation fighter concepts emerging in the second decade of the 21st Century are aimed at a potential service entry sometime after 2025.