F-17 wins the Light Weight Fighter competition in 1974

[TomZ]

Light Weight Fighter (LWF) competition



In the early 70s of the last century the NATO allies Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway were seeking to replace their F-104G Starfighter fighter-bombers. In early 1974, they reached an agreement with the U.S. that if the USAF ordered the LWF winner, they would consider ordering it as well. The USAF also needed to replace its F-105 Thunderchief and F-4 Phantom II fighter-bombers. The four NATO allies had formed the Multinational Fighter Program Group (MFPG) and pressed for a U.S. decision by December 1974. After a primary selection process, General Dynamics and Northrop were selected to build prototypes of the F-16 and F-17 respectively.



To reflect this serious intent to procure a new fighter-bomber, the LWF program was rolled into a new Air Combat Fighter (ACF) competition in an announcement by U.S. Secretary of Defense James R. Schlesinger in April 1974. The ACF would not be a pure fighter, but multirole, and Schlesinger made it clear that any ACF order would be in addition to the F-15, which extinguished opposition to the LWF. ACF also raised the stakes for GD and Northrop because it brought in competitors intent on securing what was touted at the time as "the arms deal of the century". These were Dassault-Breguet's proposed Mirage F1M-53, the Anglo-French SEPECAT Jaguar, and the proposed Saab 37E "Eurofighter". On 11 September 1974, the U.S. Air Force confirmed plans to order the winning ACF design to equip five tactical fighter wings. Though computer modeling predicted a close contest, the YF-17 proved significantly more powerful and had better survivability and was the unanimous choice of those pilots that flew both aircraft.



On 13 January 1975, Secretary of the Air Force John L. McLucas announced the YF-17 as the winner of the ACF competition. The chief reasons given by the secretary were the YF-17's lower operating costs and greater range that was "significantly better" than that of the YF-16, especially at supersonic speeds. Secretary McLucas announced that the USAF planned to order at least 650, possibly up to 1,400 production F-17s. This prompted various NATO countries to also buy the F-17 Cobra.

Model: 1/72 Anigrand resin

TomZ

[Spino]

That's some "interesting" tail art for sure...

[Rick Lowe]

That's some "interesting" tail art for sure...

Definitely... 

[TomZ]

That's some "interesting" tail art for sure...

Markings of a real world Dutch Air Force F-16.


The aircraft appeared like this on the open door days of the Dutch Air Force in the Saturday display.
The next day the more "interesting" parts were overpriced.....

TomZ

[Rick Lowe]

Of course they were, no-one has a sense of humour these days...

[perttime]

I thought I had seen tail art like that somewhere - but now this is the closest I can find:



Oh... TomZ found the real one.

I thought that the nose and canopy shapes on the model aren't quite YF-17. F-16 canopy?

[TomZ]

I thought that the nose and canopy shapes on the model aren't quite YF-17. F-16 canopy?

Well spotted sir! I cracked the original canopy.
But of course this is the F-17A. Stands to reason that it is different from the YF-17   

TomZ

[DogfighterZen]

 

[NARSES2]

Looks good Tom