source: Wikipedia
In what has become the most suffered of the Pentagon's adoption of a jet fighter, the Pentagon has again announced it is grounding its entire fleet of 51 Lockheed-Martin F35.
Last year, reports surfaced that there were problems in the cockpit during flight of another jet, the F22. Pilots reported feeling ill and even passing out. Investigation into the matter proved the pilots right. A flaw in the cabin's design was causing the pilot to feel ill. What was worse, their symptoms did not always subside when they stopped flying. The flaw was addressed, but many saw the F22 as a problematic aircraft.
This time however, cracks in the engine body in one of the F 35 jet fighters have prompted the Pentagon to ground all F35 flights.
The F35, which was developed with a 'consortium' of countries who contributed seed money and were involved partially in the production of some of its components, was to be the answer to the Pentagon's quest for a newer, more advanced jet fighter.
As of today, only one aircraft has shown the engine damage observed, but since it is such a crucial component of the jet, the fleet must now be investigated in full, aircraft by aircraft to assess if the problem is widespread or not.
The production of the F35 was supposed to reach a total of 2,443 vessels, some of which had been destined for overseas country that are part of the Nato alliance, such as Italy, and others who invested in the project like Japan and Israel.
But many of the partner countries, are becoming weary of the constant delays and spiraling costs the project has suffered. The project in fact, seems to be never ending, with a delivery date that is constantly being pushed further into the future.
In some cases, the partner countries have expressed their desire to limit future investment in the project.
partial sourcing: Al Jazeera 2.23.13/NBCnews 5.6.12
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