Italeri 1208 Boeing JSF X-32

Boeing JSF X-32. The basic machine of the US Air Force, Navy and Marines is to be a less sophisticated, lighter and much cheaper aircraft - JSF. The Joint Strike Fighter is expected to cost no more than $ 41 million and replace the popular F-16. The main task of the JSF will be to attack ground targets. Already, 70 percent of air missions are of this nature. The JSF is also made in Stealth technology, and its versions for the Navy and Marines have the possibility of a short take-off and vertical landing. Ultimately, the USAAF under the JSF program intends to purchase 2,433 copies, and another 930 machines may be sold abroad. The British have already expressed interest in buying around 138 JSFs. The Boeing (X-32) and Lockheed (X-35) machines differed from each other in significant design details (mainly vertical nozzle drive solutions). In the first years of the twenty-first century, there was a fierce race against time in both labels. Boeing seemed to be driving it, making its first test flight on a prototype machine a month earlier than a competitor. Ultimately, however, the Pentagon chose Lockheed Martin's X-35. A contract worth $ 19 billion allowed for the creation of the first, preliminary version of the machine, which took to the air in 2006. By 2010, the USAAF had acquired 63 machines.