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DVD Review : NOVA Battle of the X-Planes
From 1996 to 2001, Boeing and Lockheed Martin
were engaged in a battle to win a multi-billion
dollar contract for the Joint Strike Fighter,
a stealthy, affordable combat plane intended for the 21st
century needs of the U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marines.
In "Battle of the X-Planes," NOVA's film crew was
allowed into Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works and Boeing's
Phantom Works for the Joint Strike Fighter Competition
between the X-32 and X-35.
This is the first-ever inside look at a Department of
Defense weapons competition. Flashback to December 1996, Producer Mike Jorgensen was in the office of JSF program, Rear Admiral Craig Steidle to sell his idea about the film. Steidle is enthusiastic about the idea but feels that the big challenge will be getting Boeing and Lockheed Martin to agree. So after meeting the 2 aerospace giants with the proposal, it was 2 years later in July 1998 that the green light was given. Under the agreement, all film footage will be handed over to security personnel at the end of each day, who will store it at their facility. No information should be passed from one team to another. At all times, there will be a government or contractor escort during the filming.
The documentary features numerous in flight and cockpit scenes of both aircraft. The most memorable were the first flights of the two X-planes during testing. As Boeing's test pilot Fred Knox preflights his aircraft, he discovers a screwdriver that was left behind. Something that is strictly forbidden in aviation. And as the X-32 was being flown from Phantom Works to Edwards Air Base, the camera was able to capture a hydraulic leak on the starboard side of the aircraft that cut short the first flight. Another hair rising moment was the air to air refueling being carried out. The drogue came dangerously close to hitting the instrument probes at the nose tip of the aircraft and when it finally engaged with the probe, the fuel could not transfer and spilled into the thin air. Over at Lockheed, they were struggling to get their first plane airborne and were close to being eliminated from the competition due to costs overruns. After the first X-35 flight, Lockheed Martin's test pilot Tom Morganfed was given a water bucket party, a tradition for all aviators everywhere who went 1st solo.
The entire show was not just about pilots and their planes. The film crew revealed the shop floors where the planes were being assembled and captures the excitement and frustrations as they assemble and troubleshoot these futuristic airplanes. There were also scenes of boardroom meetings where the engineers thrash out the various solutions. One such scene was at Boeing where they had to call for a meeting to decided the new wing configuration for their aircraft after the delta was found to be too heavy for the Navy's requirement. There was a heated arguement over the four poster and pelican tail design. Besides interviews with officials from the Pentagon and the two competitors. Aviation consultants such as Bill Sweetman and Jay Miller were brought in to give their opinions. At each stage of the competition, from design to award announcement, they will explain the progress of the teams and decisions taken by them. The final last quarter of the film devotes mainly on the stovl testing, each team took a different design with Boeing using the direct lift method and Lockheed Martin using a new radical lift fan design. Boeing's design was giving it problems and the viewer would see that a few times the direct lift system did not work smoothly.
The Joint Strike Fighter Program could be the last manned fighter program in the United States, NOVA has successfully captured it into a exciting 2 hour video. There is no doubt that if you are interested in the Joint Strike Fighter, this is the video to get.
