Ultimate Fighter: Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter [Hardcover]

Bill Sweetman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 20, 2004

Ultimate Fighter tells how a series of little-known technology programs coalesced into a 3,000-airplane plan-the F-35 joint strike fighter (JSF). As one of the first major aircraft programs to start from scratch in the era of information technology, the JSF virtually flies itself, while the pilot manages the mission with the help of very acute high-resolution sensors and displays. The F-35 is one of the biggest single military projects in history-but it was born as a compromise between the needs of three U.S. services in the budget-strapped post-Cold War era. Author Bill Sweetman chronicles the high stakes competition between two aviation giants, Lockheed Martin and Boeing, to build the Joint Strike Fighter-the next generation fighter jet.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bill Sweetman was the chief aerospace consultant on the Nova (PBS) production of "Battle of the X-Planes." He is an experienced aviation journalist, having written more that 30 books in the field. He was awarded the Aviation/Space Writers Association Award of Excellence in 1990 and 1992. Sweetman also served as consulting editor on Jane's International Defense Review. Sweetman lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Zenith Press; First edition (November 20, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0760317925
• ISBN-13: 978-0760317921
• Product Dimensions: 10.4 x 10.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,095,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, Deep into Details of this new Fighter, March 2, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultimate Fighter: Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (Hardcover)

We know how to build a stealth fighter. We know how to build a long-range agile fighter. We may even have a good way of building a fighter that can land and take off vertically. But trying to build a fighter that can do all three is very, very difficult."

But that's exactly what Lockheed Martin is building in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Perhaps trying to build is a better term. It looked like possible in 2001 when the contract was let. By 2004 the plane had gained weight and the lift wasn't quite there to take off vertically.

This is a great book. It is mostly on the details of the competitive designs being proposed by Lockheed Martin and Boeing. For five years these two companies worked on the design of the fighters they were proposing, even to building flying prototypes. Reading the book gets you deep into the design effort, the philosophies of the two companies, and the politics involved. You know more about the F-35 than you imagined possible.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A disappointment, January 26, 2008

By 

John H. Hwung (Fair Oaks, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ultimate Fighter: Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (Hardcover)

This is more of a coffee table book. There is very little excitement when reading through the book. The book is even less exciting than the BBC documentary of the same account of Boeing and Lockheed competing for the winning design. Most of all, you don't sense the human factor, the human drama in this book. Contrast this book with the Skunk Work book by Ben Rich and you can see the difference. Again, this is just a coffee table book that you look flip once in a while and not a book like Mr. Rich's that you go back to for inspirational ideas.