Which aircraft won the Boeing X-32’s competition for the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter program?

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II won the competition against Boeing’s X-32 for the U.S. Joint Strike Fighter program.

Boeing built the X-32 as its demonstrator for the competition, while Lockheed Martin built the X-35. Both aircraft were evaluated in conventional takeoff, carrier, and short-takeoff-and-vertical-landing configurations. The X-35 was selected in October 2001 after flight testing and technical evaluation.

The winning design became the F-35 Lightning II, a family of stealth multirole fighters. Boeing’s X-32 was unusual in appearance because of its large chin-mounted air intake and blended wing-body styling. Although it lost the competition, the X-32 demonstrated Boeing’s approach to combining several versions in one basic aircraft design. The X-32 should not be confused with Boeing’s operational F-15 or F/A-18 fighters, which were developed through separate programs.