[Yo-Yo]

I think the LA Times is trying to make the case that the Marines shouldn't spend the money for the upcomming JSF STOVL variant, which will be a direct replacement for both the Marine and Royal Navy Harriers.

[blackdog]

Any transition from horizontal to vertical flight is friggin dangerous. This cannot be avoided by design, computer assist, pilot skills, or a juicy blessing on the bird by the pope himself.

For anybody who flies, imagine transitioning in such a state in a downburst, windshear, hot thermal, etc... I don't know about the rest of the world, but I prefer to fly late at night when all those phenomenon have gone to bed for the night. I would really be curious to see statistics on time of day in those crashes. We have enemies who like to ruin our lives 24/7 and in bad weather too.

Military pilots do not have the luxury of staying in the hangar when conditions are not ideal when a bunch of tanks are rolling toward our infantry. Bad things happen to good people in war and in training to be prepared for war.