Boeing X-32

The Boeing X-32 was a concept demonstrator aircraft that Boeing built for the Joint Strike Fighter competition in the United States. The competition grew out of the DARPA Common Affordable Lightweight Fighter project of 1993 and the Joint Advanced Strike Technology project, which Congress ordered merged in 1994 before the combined effort was renamed the Joint Strike Fighter program in 1995. Boeing and Lockheed Martin each received a contract in November 1996 to build two demonstrators, and Boeing unveiled its X-32A and X-32B at Palmdale, California, in December 1999. The X-32A made its first flight on 18 September 2000. Boeing chose a large one-piece carbon fiber delta wing and a direct-lift thrust vectoring system for the short take-off and vertical landing version, aiming to win on lower manufacturing and life-cycle cost. The X-32 lost to the Lockheed Martin X-35, which was developed further into the F-35 Lightning II.