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Hey, bumping up an old thread! Way to go! Now what amazes me in the todays we are living in nowadays, is that the Pork Chop and its less successful brother with the bulging chin, the X-32, were starting their tests in 2000. Twenty years ago. And how many F-35 Pork Chops do the Dutchyland Air Force have now stationed in Dutchyland?
Four.
Four. ( Let me say that just once more to let it sink in: four.)*
I remember when I was a short-legged airplane-crazy seven year-old laddy in 1977, learning about the F-16, that first flew in 1974. The Dutchyland Air Force was going to buy the F-16 to replace the royal bribe-promote stovepipe-with-wings that so conveniently made nice holes in our meadows. The F-16 was a very advanced plane for its time. Like, in tech standards in its own era. In 1979 the first batch of 18 planes was delivered, just five years later. Next year, another 14 were bought and delivered. In the next four years, another 61 were delivered. So, ten years after its maiden flight we had about 100 F-16's up and running. Now we're 20 years from the Pork Chop's maiden fight. And we just have four of them buggers up and flying.
That is a way to artificially brag about its loooong operational life.
*apparently we actually do have a whopping twelve (!!!!) Pork Chops but the eight other ones are stationed in the US. Of course, because why would we need them over here?
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Last edited by Paper Kosmonaut; 11-07-2020 at 04:21 AM.
Reason: I changed some letters into others - or discarded them completely.
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