Northrop Single-Engine "Cobra" LWF

[KJ_Lesnick]

Could the YF-17's radar have worked with a nose like the F-20?

[KJ_Lesnick]

I was reading that politics played a serious role in the F-16 winning the LWF program due to General Dynamics having a huge mile-long government run plant in Dallas... and that because General-Dynamics was putting the whole company on the line, if it lost, that factory would go under or something...

This true?   


KJ Lesnick

[Sauragnmon]

From what I heard, part of the factors that decided the F-20's fate was the growth potential - it didn't have as much as the Viper did, and that's why she suffered.  I don't know about other plans, but some of them looked like they lacked in that department too, like Boeing's LWF.

[KJ_Lesnick]

Sauragnmon,

Thank you for your reply.  I should note that I was talking about the YF-17A losing to the YF-16, not the F-20 to the F-16. 

I was just wondering if General Dynamics with it's huge plant and the government's need to keep it open and running, and since GD was putting everything on the line to win the LWF program, would have basically made it impossible for any other plane to win (as any other plane winning would probably do GD in and would be bad for that huge mile-long production line). 
(Read reply #61)

I was simply proposing a concept in which the YF-17 would have been designed with a single F-100 engine, chine-shelves, a single tail, and possibly some F-20 characteristics (maybe a slightly flatter nose for high alpha purposes)