Message posted by Duke (Member since 08/27/2019) on March 26, 2025 at 5:02:09 PST:

Not sure there's much to leverage off that naval a/c historical background considering Grumman last produced a carrier-based fighter 35(ish) years ago, one designed in the 1960s. That tribal knowledge of both design and manufacture
of a production carrier fighter is almost certainly long gone.

I worked with former Grumman guys who'd gone over to Republic on T-46, the two plants were less than five miles apart. Of course that didn't work out, but probably seemed like a good idea at the time. A least a handful of them wound up at NADC Warminster, and ultimately Pax River.

Reminds me of repeatedly hearing while I worked JSF (from JAST days through source selection) that Boeing hadn't built a production USAF (still Army Air Corps then) fighter since the P-26 in the early 1930s. That was certainly noted and discussed in the "past performance" elements of the source selection, but was mitigated to some degree by Boeing’s acquisition of McDonnell Douglas not long after the down select to the two final competitors. Wasn't but a month or so later some the former St. Louis guys started showing up on X-32.

In Reply to: Re: F/A-XX contract award expected this week posted by NotTelling on March 25, 2025 at 11:49:31 PST:

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