The official F-35 Lightning II page from Lockheed Martin tells a little bit about the history of the plane. The wikipedia entry about it has some more info, or at least it’s just laid out more directly.
i had a chance to fly one of the early test models a few years ago, as well as a testing F-22. for most purposes i agree that the F-22 is a far better plane overall. for other countries that way something that can perform and will cost very little to get in the beginning the F-22 would probably be a better shot. however, over the long run the F-35 is a far cheaper plane to maintain.
i guess the real question is, how does it stack up to the F/A-18? from what i could tell, not as well in dog fighting situations really. however, it fully surpasses that of the F-16. it’s just leaps and bounds above the everything but the 22 and 18. then again, i don’t think anything should match up to the F-22, as it was designed for air superiority to begin with.
why an article on a fighter that isn’t even fully released yet? to be blunt, they just show cased it, but in a very low profile way. it has been a side note on every news thing i’ve seen it on. i remember a day when announcements like this were talked about for ages, but now they’re just notes in the margin.
one of the best parts of this news is that there is finally a plane to take over the harrier, a plane that i’m not very fond of.
all in all, i think the F-35 will be a great little plane, but short lived.