The Boeing X-32 is a concept demonstrator aircraft that was designed for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. It lost to the Lockheed Martin X-35 demonstrator, which was further developed into the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II.
source/image(PrtSc): Found And Explained
The aircraft successfully transitioned to and from STOVL flight mode by using its direct-lift system to redirect thrust from the aircraft’s cruise nozzle to the lift nozzles. Employing a direct-lift thrust vectoring system, the X-32 reached top speeds of just under 1.6 mach.
To achieve this, the engine was located in the front portion of the fuselage, with the vectoring nozzles immediately behind it, and a long exhaust duct leading back to the afterburner and pitch-axis thrust vectoring nozzle at the rear.
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Why it failed, eight months into the competition, the JSF’s aerodynamic requirements were revised at the behest of the Navy. Boeing engineers managed to make some slight changes to the tail, but it was too late to meaningfully redesign the delta wing to fully comport with the new JSF guidelines.In 2005, the Boeing X-32A was transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force near Dayton, Ohio. Its condition deteriorated due to being outside for several years following the end of the JSF competition, but it is now indoors and planned to be restored./wikipedia
