I believe an audit is proper and FBI investigation is warranted for this kind of waste. $63M is not peanuts.

I'm an other country citizen.
I thought that everywhere we go, a higher officials are much the same.without exception..
Where will you use it?
The plane might be used to get your troops in Iraq and Afghanistan..
I hope to live in peace...

Campaign contributions from anyone apart from private individuals who make their donations through a third party which can be trusted to keep the identities and affiliations of donators from the recipients should be banned. Otherwise we'll continue to get politician's caring more to please these lobbyists and contributers than they do the actual voters.

Oh my people. Yer all morons. I am an engineer, and sure this thing can't fly at the moment, but where would we have been if Wilbur and Orville gave up? It is a continous effort of trial and error when it comes to producing new technology and innovations. Who knows this plane may fly. Right now it has not been designed well and needs lots of work. Come on and get your heads out of your rear-ends for once. It could take another ten years to perfect the technology and get the thing to fly. Because it doesn't fly now is no reason to attack the project.

The world is truly full of stupid people when it comes to reading your replies.

I'm an engineer also, and although I agree with LAB on many points, I must point out that the Pentagon DOESN'T WANT this plane. It should not be the place of Congress (or Congressmen) to determine what should be a tactical advantage to the military. This is Pork, pure and simple, and Congressman Hunter should be an ex-Congressman and an ex-Presidential-hopeful.

LAB - You are not too bright yourself. This technology has been developed in the AV-8 Harrier and in the F-35 version for the Marines. Why these guys have been trying to re-invent the wheel for 20+ years is inexcusable. Even the most basic moron Engineer should be able to get thing to hover in this day and age.

Funny, look at the promos for this thing. The concept is for a large troop carrier, for the Navy? Here we have an uglied up Cessna. When I saw the pics I thought this was some old Soviet Era fighter. Even the most basic moron Engineer should be able to get thing to hover in this day and age.

Duncan Hunter, R-Calif is a fraud and so is Anthony DuPont.

With news like this can we start to put into regular use the phrase "spendthrift Republicans"?

This plane, I can say as an engineer, is a waste of money. The airframe appears to be a much uglier, less aerodynamic version of the F-84 Sabre II that the US used during the Korean War (1951-53)... look it up.

I fail to see how the Navy needs a "high speed transport VTOL" when they have larger capacity, longer range, tried and true C-130s, C-2A Greyhounds, and now MV-22s that SEALs can (and probably do) use for combat/black ops insertion.

The Navy is making a move towards ease of maintenance by using the F/A-18 Superhornet platform for Interception, Strike, Electronic Warfare, Reconnaisance, and everything but early warning and transport. Within transport and early warning aircraft, as within all combat aircraft these days, interchangability of parts is critical while deployed or at sea. This aircraft obviously does not fit that criteria, as the E-2C and the C-2A are the same airframe with completely different missions, this would be an unnecessary complication to the supply of spare parts, maintenance and flight training, etc.

The FBI should tear Representative Hunter (and other elected officials)"a new one" for essentially taking bribes and wasting valuable defense funds.

Oh, and just to rebut earlier comments, the Fly-by-wire, computer stabilized vectored thrust system used by the F-35A,B,and C are NOT so easy any moron could do it... They are beyond what most mechanical and aerospace engineers consider EXTREMELY complicated, and require highly skilled and constant maintenance.

looks like a WWII Spitfire !!

The article said the project started in 1986. For those that are casting stones if I remember correctly wasn't the democrats in charge of congress then? Repub didn't gain control until 1995. Sounds to me like there's plenty of blame to go around.

Oink, oink.

Um, just how high was it expected to get before it hit the end of the tether which appears to be the cause of the failure.

I reluctantly took a job there a number of years back and I could not wait to get out. The place was a joke, run by a bunch of jokers and as you can tell, the "thing" is the biggest joke. Man- the stories I could share. You can't even call that thing a plane - don't you think in order to call it a plane, it has to fly? Duh...

What should we expect? from a useless government? you guessed it right, Colladeral damage, or in short American deaths. 0-49. My fellow Americans. ITS TIME! Bush is worried about terorrist and fighting them here. Dont worry GW you forgot, your worst nightmare is the American People, so continue to piss them off, and when something nasty does happen,the politicains should leave the USA, they will no longer be relavent.

What a bunch of dummies to continue to feed a dead horse.

I believe that the Osprey is supposed to be our new vertical take-off plane, although it also had serious initial problems. This new plane looks ill conceived, and I wouldn't personally want a ride in the Osprey either. After four fatal crashes, they say they've finally fixed it. Hope so.

Don asked "Don't we already have an airplane like this: the Harrier".

Hell no, the Harrier FLIES man ... !!

As a previous comment stated, this was not meant to fly. The money is being diverted to a secret aircraft in development. It is called Dis-Information. How do you think we paid for F117's?

63 million of wasted dollars, and the US Government is going after the Brown's?? How about their own waste of money? INSANE.

Well, every government and every military "wastes" a ton of money on projects that never exactly get off the ground. They do that because sometimes they stumble upon a good idea. During ww2, Japan and Germany gambled on several ideas for weapons that never worked and would be considered laughable today. I guess rather than look at it in perspective its more hip to just bash.