Joint Strike Fighter

One of the nice things about Netflix via Wii is that I can sit down and have access to a variety of great blockbuster entertainment. So I streamed a NOVA presents. This one was actually pretty interesting, as it followed the Joint Strike Fighter program, at least from design development to prototype. Two teams, same amount of money, same specifications. It sounds like "Junkyard Wars" but instead of five hundred dollars, each team received around $700 million, and instead of a week, each team were given two years. Still an incredible feat, with a lot more on the line. It was a facinating show to watch, as NOVA cameras were given simultaneous access to the two camps of Lockheed's Skunk Works and Boeing's Phantom Works (coincidently separated by only a few miles in the same stretch of isolated california desert). 

In a sense, watching the competition unfold, I was struck by some of the same similarities in architectural competitions, or I suppose, any competition where corporations battle for high-stakes contracts. Packed meetings with harried engineers and designers, long shifts and working weekends. And of course, one has to wonder about the scale of the politicking and behind the scenes maneuvering and deals being made. It would be nice if competitions could be won and lost on the merits of design and on the terms of the competition alone, but I'd be naive to say that relationships and negotiations don't enter into it. One can hope, at any rate, for a more balanced competition considering that it is the US government who was the arbiter, responsible to the people. 

The film makers struck me as slightly biased against Lockheed, whom they twice associated with "arrogance," although they did catch the design leader on the record with a very arrogant stance towards the competition (although who knows if was just that day or just that person). It could also be a slight attempt to portray the Boeing team as scrappy underdog, with the knowledge in editing that it was going to lose the competition. 

In the end, both teams turned out a spectacular product. Boeing might have taken the dance if they'd come up with their design sooner, or if Lockheed had turned out a less sexy final product. It really comes back down to architecture school pin ups, where one guy with a great design finds it too late in the game to change his model, and the guy with the basswood takes the highest praise. I do feel for the Boeing team, however, who sacrificed a lot to get a pretty phenomenal vehicle to do some amazing things. The design team I'm on, we may call ourselves sucessful in 'winning' the competition to get our building designed, but the day it opens, my building will not hover off the ground or reach supersonic speeds.