Few aircraft in history are as controversial as Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter — the F-35 Lightning II. This aircraft, projected to cost the United States more than $2 trillion dollars over its six-plus decades of service, saw repeated cost overruns, production delays, and technical setbacks over the 17 years since it first took to the sky, and today, you don’t have to go far to find someone calling this seemingly troubled fighter a failure. But this perception doesn’t reflect reality… And there’s good reason for that.