FRESH doubts have been thrown on Australia's most costly military project in history after aviation experts slammed the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter as a "disaster" that lacks power and punch.

Planes trains and tourism

LAST time I went flying with Geoff Milne, he suspended me upside down, high above north-east Victoria, in a frayed harness in the cramped cabin of his Wirraway, one of three Australian-made World War II fighter planes still flying in the 1980s. He laughed gleefully at the terror he heard..read more

Can anyone explain what exactly an FA-18 Hornet fighter plane thundering across Sydney Harbour is supposed to do in the event of an APEC emergency? Turn sharply and strafe some terrorists on the ground? Blow a suspicious looking aircraft to smithereens above the CBD? Or maybe fly back to Williamtown..read more

THE true cost of each new fighter jet Australia buys from the troubled Joint Strike Fighter program is far higher than the Federal Government and Royal Australian Air Force have made public.