Page 3 - Aerotech News and Review, October 29, 2021

Friendly rivals re-fight historic ‘Battle of the X-Planes’

by Larry Grooms The 2021 Roll of Honor
special to Aerotech News In the historical tradition of the Gathering of
Eagles, professionals are selected annually to be
The Main Event for the 2021 Gathering of Eagles honored for their significant accomplishments in
was billed as The Battle of the X-Planes, in which service to aerospace advancement, national de-
nine veterans representing both sides of that historic fense, community support and education
fighter aircraft design and fly-off competition re-
lived the bloodless battle of two decades ago. 2021 Gathering of Eagles, Eagle Honor-
A bit earlier in the program the Foundation hon- ees:
ored the producer of a parallel version of the un- Fred D. Knox Jr. — X-32 Chief Test Pilot
precedented $2.5 billion government contact duel Joseph Sweeney — X-35C Project Pilot
between Boeing’s X-32 and Lockheed Martin’s Dennis P. O’Donoghue – X-32B Project Pilot
X-35. Simon Hargreaves — X-35B Project Pilot
Michael ‘Mike” Jorgensen was among the Hon- Addison Thompson — X-32 Test Director
ored Teams for his Emmy award-winning docu- Dick Burton — X-35 Director of Flight Test
mentary “The Battle of the X-Planes.” He holds
the distinction of being the only filmmaker ever to Team Awards:
be granted inside access to classified Department Joint Test Force
of Defense weapons competition. His documentary Capt. Phillip “Rowdy” Yates, USN (Ret.) X-32
shows up frequently on PBS channels. Jorgensen Col. Paul “TP” Smith, USAF (Ret.) X-35
said the five years he spent producing the documen- Col. Art “Turbo” Tomassetti, USMC (Ret.)
tary “recalibrated my ideas of what high quality X-35
was,” and called the resulting video “a valuable Courtesy photograph Lt. Col. Jeff “Pigpen” Karnes, USMC (Ret.)
STEM education tool.” The Battle of the X-Planes, detailing the competition between the X-32 and X-35, was theme of X-32
Asked how he dealt with confidentiality issues in the 2021 Gathering of Eagles, an event to raise funds for the new Flight Test Museum. Cmdr. Paul “Stoney” Stone, RN (Ret.) X-32
going back and forth between the competing man- Sqn. Ldr. Justin “Jif” Paines, RAF (Ret.) X35
ufacturers, Jorgensen instantly quipped, “Cash,” Great, What does it cost? Who makes it? How soon pabilities of an Air Force multi-role fighter. They Col. Edward “Fast Eddie” Cabrera, USAF
drawing the biggest laugh of the evening. can we get it? The answers to each question were showed carrier suitability through hundreds of (Ret.) X-32
Meanwhile, back in the on-stage arena, panelists along the lines of “We don’t know.” “Nobody Field Carrier Landing Practice approaches for the Capt. Brian “Goz” Goszkowicz, USN (Ret.)
scored telling and candid observations and plau- does.” “You might get it in a year and a half.” Navy, and they both showed that they could pro- X-35
sible theories about how and why Lockheed won, Eventually the mysterious Pentium Chip appeared vide Short Takeoff and vertical landing operations Rear Adm. Greg “Fence” Fenton, USN (Ret.)
and Boeing didn’t. They quickly got past the old overnight — in smart phones, microwave ovens for the Marine Corps, Royal Air Force and Royal X-35
notion that Boeing’s X-32 was just the ugly sister, and Ford pickup trucks. Functioned just as word- Navy.
compared with Lockheed’s more stylish configura- of-mouth advertising said it would. “Both teams demonstrated levels of reliability The Boeing / P&W X-32 Flight Test and En-
tion. One panelist remembers that Boeing manage- And Rezabek, who was chief engineer and prod- unheard of in X-Planes, both flying from Edwards gineering Team
ment’s response was, “We’re taking it to war, not uct manager was pleased to report that 700 F-35 to Pax River during their flight test programs.” Dr. Kathleen “Katy” Fleming Accepting
the junior prom.” offspring of the X-35 were delivered in July alone. He concluded, “The government selection team
Pilots of both the aircraft designs in a specified He would know best about that kind of thing, as his announced that the Lockheed Martin/BAE System/ Lockheed Martin/BAE Systems/Northrop
range of flight and mission configurations and byline appears on the 10-page history of the Battle Northrop Grumman team had been selected to de- Grumman X-35 Flight Test and Engineering
profiles attested to high qualities of handling and of the X-Planes. sign and build the operational Joint Strike Fighter Team
performance. But one possible explanation for the Reflecting on the journey, Rezabek wrote: as the F-35. The committee stated that the selection Rick Rezabek Accepting
final decision focused not on the planes themselves, “In just four years aircraft were designed and was based on best value, a clear indication that they
but on the distinctly different corporate cultures of built. They were tested in the air for just under a felt that either an F-32 or an F-35 could have been PBS The Battle of the X-Planes
the two prime contractors. year. Both team’s designs demonstrated the ca- a revolutionary step in military aircraft.” Michael Jorgenson — Producer Accepting
Lockheed Martin’s corporate philosophy was
driven and shaped by legends and lore about tech-
nological miracles emerging from its fiercely inde-
pendent magic shop — The Skunk Works, where
risk aversion was viewed as a character flaw. And
Lockheed has a long tradition of building superior
fighter planes, starting with the P-38 and rolling
through the generations of such high-performance
jets as the T-33, F-104 Starfighter, U-2 and TR-1,
F-117 Nighthawk, A-12 and SR-71.
Boeing, by contrast, hadn’t initiated a fighter
program since the end of World War II, when it
expanded its big bomber and military transport
production lines to eventually dominate the world
of civil air transportation with a legacy fleet of jet-
liners that changed incrementally to meet world
market demands. Boeing’s corporate culture en-
couraged low risk projects. The company’s risk
management portfolio was channeled into strategic
acquisition or mergers.
Rockwell built Space Shuttle Orbiters. Boeing
bought Rockwell.
McDonnell-Douglas created the “Phantom
Works” for prototyping advanced products and
technologies, including highly classified programs.
Boeing bought McDonnel-Douglas.
In the matter of random thrills, brain teasers,
rude surprises and lesson learned too late to be
useful, panelists offered many examples, one of
the finest being:

The Pentium Chip conundrum
It was Rick Rezabek, honoree for the Lockheed-
Martin, Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney
Flight Test and Engineering Team, who brought
to light the shadowy warning that without an exotic
new breed of memory chip, the X-35’s entire flight Courtesy photograph
controls computer could fail. Members of the audience at the 2021 Gathering of Eagles event enjoy a panel discussion that included members of both the X-32 and X-35 teams.
It was, the rumors asserted, “The Pentium Chip.”
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