$178 Million to Keep a 1965 Engine Alive

$178 Million to Keep a 1965 Engine Alive

The General Electric J85 first ran on a test stand in 1956. Eisenhower was president. The Soviets had not yet launched Sputnik. Seventy years later, the same engine — virtually unchanged in its core architecture — is being kept alive by more than $178 million in...
One Plane to Rule Them All

One Plane to Rule Them All

On the afternoon of Friday, 26 October 2001, the Pentagon’s acquisition chief, Edward “Pete” Aldridge, stepped up to a podium in Washington. Three thousand kilometres away, Boeing chairman Phil Condit and his Joint Strike Fighter boss, Frank Statkus, gathered around a...