| Remember, the first plane the US Government bought wrecked and killed an Army officer. Stuff happens. Test pilots are NOT a dime a dozen. For one thing, it may have been equipment failure instead of pilot problems. Wait until the facts are in before jumping to conclusions, conclusions always seem to be constructed at the edge of a cliff. No, the testing won't stop, that is a ridiculous statement. How can one test an airplane, especially one this cutting edge without a pilot taking it into the environment in which it was designed to operate. Loss of hardware is always expensive and figured into every military contract. Now, if two are lost, then the pilot is scrutinized if the telemetry shows the design to be sound. There is too much invested at this point and these testbed planes aren't full up finished products yet.
__________________  “War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse.” —John Stuart Mill |