John Halliwell wrote:

:In article , Fred J. McCall
writes
: Now, the mechanical rate shouldn't come
:as a surprise to anyone with two neurons to rub together, given that
:the AV-8 is older technology, more mechanically complex to begin with,
:and only has a single engine so any engine failure pretty much toasts
:you.
:
:VSTOL JSF has only one engine and is even more mechanically complex.

Yeah. I know. The claim is that reliability has improved so much
over the past decades that it is now perfectly reasonable to adopt
Naval aircraft with single engines.

Needless to say, I'm not convinced. I'm even less convinced about
that whole lift-fan drive train for the -C version. It may make
transitions and hover easier - but only up until the first non-perfect
moment of the hardware has. It strikes me as a smoking hole waiting
to happen.

But then, I don't design airplanes and I'll never have to fly in the
thing....

--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney