The X-32 featured a large chin-mounted air intake akin to the Vought F-8 Crusader and LTV a-7 Corsair, and a large one piece carbon fiber composite wing. The large intake did not contribute to the characteristically sleek look expected from a high-tech fighter. The wing was trapezoidal, spanning 9.15 meters, with a 55-degree leading edge sweep and could hold up to 20,000 pounds of fuel. The purpose of the high sweep angle was to allow for a thick wing section to be used while still providing limited transonic drag, and to provide a good angle for wing-installed antenna equipment. The wing would prove a challenge to fabricate.

The engine is mounted directly behind the cockpit, which places it ahead of the center of gravity (a very rare thing for a jet fighter), and it also implies something special was added to the intake to prevent the blades from being directly visible to radar. Possibilities include a variable baffle designed to block incoming radar while not interfering with airflow.

Boeing had proposed, in the 1960s, a similarly aesthetically challenged supersonic fighter with a mid-center-of-gravity mounted engine with vectored thrust nozzles, but this never proceeded beyond pictures published in Aviation Week By comparison, the Lockheed entry looked like, if anything, a smaller version of the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter. The Boeing in-house nickname of the X-32 was the "Monica."

The two X-32 prototypes featured a delta wing design, which was chosen to minimize production manufacturing costs. However, eight months into construction of the prototypes, the JSF's maneuverability and payload requirements were refined at the request of the Navy and Boeing's delta wing design fell short of the new targets. Engineers put together a new design with a conventional tail (narrowly beating out a Pelikan tail) with reduced weight and improved agility, but it was too late to change the prototypes. It was judged that they would be sufficient to demonstrate Boeing's technology

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