Exercise 11.22

The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, operated by the U.S. Department of Defense, is a global defense program that involves acquisition of military fighter jets for participating allied countries. An article in the Air & Space Power Journal (March-April 2014) reported on the estimated annual cost of adding a military aircraft to the JSF program. The table below lists the year of initial operation and cost (in millions of dollars) for 12 JSF military aircraft models. For this problem, let y = estimated annual cost and x = year of initial operation for each aircraft model.

Year Model Cost 1974 F-14 40 1975 F-15AB 28 1977 A-10 13 1978 FA-18AB 26 1978 F-15CD 30 1979 F-16AB 16 1981 F-16CD 20 1987 FA-18CD 29 1989 F-15E 31 1998 FA-18EF 55 2005 F-22 105 2012 F-35 80