‘I Would Take That Aircraft to the Ship Tomorrow’: The US Navy Test Pilot Who Flew Boeing’s X-32 Stealth Fighter Says It Was the Highlight of His Career

‘I Would Take That Aircraft to the Ship Tomorrow’: The US Navy Test Pilot Who Flew Boeing’s X-32 Stealth Fighter Says It Was the Highlight of His Career

Boeing's X-32 first flew in September 2000 and made 66 flights in four months, demonstrating in-flight refuelling, weapons bay operations and supersonic flight in two variants. Test pilots liked it. Navy test pilot Commander Phillip "Rowdy" Yates told The War Zone that Boeing had leaned heavily on F/A-18 handling qualities and control laws, and that after a couple of field carrier landing practice periods he would have taken it to the ship the n…