What used to be recognized as a leading-edge aviation magazine now
farms out its "reporting" on one of the most critical defense programs, to a person that is not skilled on the topic and at best, can rarely come up with anything better than industry talking points.
3 comments:
"[Reporting being farmed out to] a person that is not skilled on the topic and at best, can rarely come up with anything better than industry talking points."
Industry are the people who buy the pricey advertising slots.
And the last time that AvLeak had someone on the beat who did anything other than repeat the industry talking points, industry were horribly offended at the presumption thus displayed.
That mistake will not be repeated.
But, it is to be noted that the intrepid correspondent in question has a master's degree in "Comparative Literature/Women's Studies", which, I'm sure we can all agree, eminently fits her for detailed reporting on F-35 related subjects such as comparative wing loading, sustained turn rates, transonic acceleration, avionics software integration, stealth composite materials delamination, aeroacoustic flutter, helmet jitter, and what have you.
However, she has people who will tell her what is expected that she say, and that is what matters in the contemporary aerospace press.
And this, from the linked article, is just the icing on the cake.
"The Air Force jets would use the 3I software, which will include a technology refresh with improved memory processors for some sensors on board."
Improved... _memory processors_?
Huh? What?
I have some background in computer architecture. There are certain systems which actually do directly embed local processors in memory to, for instance, improve parallelism.
Such arrangements are quite rare, and to the best of my knowledge, the F-35 computer systems have never been publicly described as utilizing such a layout.
So either this is a leak of top secret design data, or it's an example of what happens when inept journalists attempt to work beyond their level of individual competence. My bet is on the latter.
That such glaring ignorance is now routinely reprinted in what used to be a gold-standard for technical aerospace publishing? That is truly unfortunate.
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