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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Sundog" data-source="post: 38145" data-attributes="member: 181"><p>I believe it's because the XF-32 and XF-35 were originally just going to be test programs, to test shaft driven lift fan versus the tip driven lift fan technology. However, the program was turned into a production design, which, I think was a mistake, which lead to an unfair competition, since the government funded part of the development of the technology. After the technology had been demonstrated, it should have been put out there for all of the companies to use to bid for the JSF. However, since they didn't, when it went from a pure demonstrator program to production program, they never changed the designations. That's why the original aircraft had an X (Experimental designation prefix) instead of a Y (Prototype designation prefix) designation.</p></blockquote><p></p>