Stupid Aircraft

I was watching ABC news tonight and a story came on regarding an aircraft that has been under development for 21 years. As my previous posts have been regarding the beauty of aircraft this post is in regards to how ugly this aircraft is, just look at the thing. If you read Popular Science Magazine you will have seen an article regarding a hypersonic aircraft for the Marines several months ago. The following month the letters to the editor regarding this issue pretty much destroyed the possibility of this aircraft ever making off the proposal sheet because there is no need for it. The same is true for this aircraft that $63 million have been poured into, its just not needed. I think the news was trying to show what a waste of money it was, but in the governments eyes this $63 million is nothing. Anyway there is really no need for an aircraft that can take of vertically fly at 700mph anywhere in the world and drop off 50 combat troops. We can pretty much do that already with more troops, almost 6 times as many troops in a Lockheed C-5 Galaxy, granted the troops will get dirty from parachuting in, but whats a little dirt. Anyway this aircraft will probably never progress beyond its hovering several feet off the ground tethered to a flat bed. As much as I support aviation when you build something this ugly it is no wonder it never makes it past the prototype stage, ie Boeing X-32, don't even get me started.