Boeing engineers: We should have won F-35 fighter contract

Many Boeing engineers still grumble that Boeing’s design for the joint strike fighter, not Lockheed Martin Corp.’s, should have won the Air Force contract a decade ago to build the aircraft now known as the F-35.

Lockheed Martin’s October 2001 win cemented its lead as builder of the nation’s most numerous next-generation fighter.

Then touted as a $200 billion contract for 3,000 aircraft, the competition carried even more weight than the just-concluded fight over the Air Force tanker, which Boeing (NYSE: BA) did win.

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