The Political Engineering of the F-35

We talk a lot in class about the social construction of technology.  There is a great example of it in the F-35 fighter.  The Washington Post recently ran a story on it.  While the F-35 has some impressive technical features, what is equally impressive is how the Air Force and the contractors have designed the plane politically.  They spread the work over 45 states (History 341 remember Angle of Attack), so very few people in Congress will be willing to cut jobs in their own state. They also began manufacturing the plan before development was complete.  This will make the plane very hard to cancel.  Incidentally, some people think this will be the last manned fighter plane ever developed by the United States--think of our discussion of the Industrial Revolution.