The Best Fighter That Never Was

The Best Fighter That Never Was

The desert air was still cool at Edwards Air Force Base on the morning of 27 August 1990 when Northrop chief test pilot Paul Metz taxied out in a machine that looked like nothing else on Earth. Charcoal grey, diamond-winged, its two tails canted outward like the fins...
296 F-35s: The Biggest Stealth Buy Yet

296 F-35s: The Biggest Stealth Buy Yet

Two signatures. 296 stealth fighters. $24.3 billion. In a single deal, the F-35 program locked in the largest batch of Lightning IIs it has ever agreed to build at once. The contract covers Lots 18 and 19 — production runs split evenly at 148 jets apiece — and the...