&gt; The rational of having just the one type of plane makes sense if you&#x27;re Ryanair (who only fly Boeing 737-800). Of cause they only have ONE role for all their plane. Having just one type plane take the role of multiple others just gives you all of the complications of each of these plane all rolled up in one, plus a series of its own unique issues.<p>In addition to that, <i>they didn&#x27;t manage to build just one type of plane</i>.  They actually built three types that look sort of the same and share <i>a few</i> parts (apparently not enough to actually save money).<p>&gt; At some point someone is going to dictate that the F-35 is done, true or not. The US will fly them for a short while and the other nations, that can&#x27;t afford new planes for another 20-30 years will be stuck with this thing.<p>I like the idea of building updated versions of existing designs as a hedge against the failure of this project.  It looks like some of those are getting more interest:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.popularmechanics.com&#x2F;military&#x2F;weapons&#x2F;news&#x2F;a18052&#x2F;boeings-stealthy-f-15-silent-eagle-israel&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.popularmechanics.com&#x2F;military&#x2F;weapons&#x2F;news&#x2F;a18052...</a>