Haha I know, right. And interesting how one of the F-15 boys from Westover gets a crack at this. It's a good example of how they pick from a huge pool of candidates from around the country to get a crack at an experience like this.
lol. Well, many, and I mean many would disagree with you about the F-8's looks. That's one of the most loved fighters of all time, but I do see your point.
BTW, the F-8K Crusader had one of the wildest technologies on it and that was the variable incidence wing where the entire forward section of both wings where they connect on the spine would lift by hydraulic mechanism to increase lift angle to the wings. I think it was the only aircraft that employed this unique system instead of variable geometry wings -- which incidentally came later with the F-14 Tomcat -- the F-8 Crusader went with this to help it with short take-offs and landings on carriers.
And now this magnificent X-32 is on static display at an air museum somewhere in MD. What a shame that they didn't sell it to Japan or made use of it in some other way. Really amazing.
The main reason it failed to the F-35 was most likely because it didn't have a new VTOL system other than the same one that was used on the Harrier, which had its occasional problems in that the massive intakes would pull in basically the same hot air and gases that the ducts were generating and pushing out to generate lift. Once it got low enough where there wasn't much clean air for those massive intakes on the Harrier as well as the Pelican guppy on this thing, it started ingesting the hot air and that would create too much of a hot cycle that it would ignite and make a loud explosion under the aircraft. That actually happened during one of the displays and was a killer.
On the other hand, the F-35 had an entirely new lift fan system with that large panel on the back behind the cockpit that would open up and the fan would pull fresh air vertically into the engine and mix beautifully and generate perfect air for lift. So the STOVL factor for the B model was what mostly helped the F-35 and worked against the X-32. Not to mention that the flight test pilot for the X-32 couldn't get close enough to the drogue chute while performing an in-flight refueling test because of all those antennas and pitot tubes the aircraft had on its radome. They were too close to the refueling probe and so they passed on that test because of the associated dangers and that also worked against them.
