Things are looking good --sssh!

There's an upbeat report about the F-35 fighter program in Aviation Week. The magazine isn't online, alas, but there's a synopsis on the Early Warning blog by Loren Thompson, who concludes with some caustic words about how the mainstream media never seem to find space to publish the good news.

Aviation Week & Space Technology reports today that the nation's biggest weapons development program has surpassed its testing goals for calendar year 2011, and is on track to do the same in 2012. The goal for 2011 was 872 flight tests, and as of last Thursday, 875 had been completed. This is very good news, since three U.S. military services and a dozen allies need various versions of the plane to replace aging Cold War fighters. Without it, they can't preserve U.S. air superiority through mid-century.

Blue skies! -- Dan Ford (with a tip of the virtual hat to Renee Richardson)