Message posted by Sundog on April 24, 2005 at 22:34:03 PST:

An easy way to tell the mockup from the prototypes is the canopy. The Prototypes had a seperate windscreen and canopy and as such, the canopy opened to the rear like an F-15's. The full scale mockup has the production single piece canopy, with the support frame inside it near the front and hinges open at the front, similar to early models of the MiG-21. Also, based on drawings, it's been a while since I have seen the mockup, the vertical tails on the FSD aircraft are perfect parallelograms. The leading edge sweep is the exact same as the trailing edge sweep. They aren't like that on the prototypes, which have trapezoidal vertical tails with more leading edge sweep than the trailing edge. Also, less noticeable at fist glance, the inlets on the production version have been moved back further along the fuselage by a foot or so. I think they did this to improve visibility, just like they did when they went from the YF-22 to the F-22.

In Reply to: Re: TESTING AIRCRAFT - Real X-35B displayed at 2002 Edwards Open House posted by Brian on April 20, 2005 at 18:47:14 PST:

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