On 5/18/04 7:50 PM, in article
t, "Thomas Schoene"
wrote:

Woody Beal wrote:
Risky technology. Reaching too far with too many conflicting
requirements. Anybody else reminded of the A-12?

Seems a tad bit to early to be jumping to conclusions here.

All we have as a bunch of people with little or no access to any actual
program data saying that "there's no way" to make up this weight difference.
But none of the pople quoted are actual aerospace engineers, AFAIK. I'm not
going to assume they know better than the engineers designing the plane. Not
at this stage, anyway.


If you're denying it's overweight, then I think you're in denial. It is...
That comes from folks working in the program. They're trying to deal with
it, but 2,000 lbs (I hadn't heard 3,300 lbs.) is a lot to lose.

Heck, even if it is overweight and they can't get it all back, there's
actually a pretty simple fix -- revert to the requirement for 2x1000-lb
internal bombs for the STOVL aircraft instead of the 2x2000-lb bombs they
switched to pretty late in the design process. Presto, a 2000-lb weight
savings.

Presto! Diminished striking capability for a STOVL aircraft... How novel.

--Woody