Undoubtedly, Lockheed Martin would have gone out of business if they failed to land the contract. Though it was a blow to Boeing, they will surely survive.

 

I saw that episode and I agree it was some great televsion. Nova and show like it, imo, are some of the best on the tube.

I thought Lockheed deserved the win also, I found it odd that the Boeing version had to be modified to go from supersonic to vertical take off and landing. Boeing should have seen this as a large weakness in their design, wasn't part of the requirements to be supersonic AND VTAL? Having to reconfigure the plane made no sense to me.

The airborne refueling looked very dangerous with all that fuel spilling out, but I thought it would have been the easier plane to refuel since the pilot can see the port. On the Lockheed it was behind the pilot. I wonder how the Boeing would have done without all the test antennas mounted on the nose.

As far as looks, I thought the Boeing looked a little like a small whale, while the Lockheed one looked much more menacing, especially while it hovered.

BTW, I also think that Boeing will be granted the unmanned contract (unless they screw up real bad and I don't think there is much chance of that). The Government will need more than one manufacturer.