Posted on 09/25/2014 8:29:18 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
(Harry Whitver)
A few months ago, I was in Fort Worth, Texas, reporting on BAE Systems’ project to modernize South Korea’s F-16s. I’d known the project’s leader, John Bean, in an earlier job, and on one of his shelves was a memento of that era—a model of a desert-camouflaged airplane that was clearly an F-16 but with a longer body, no horizontal stabilizer, and big delta wings.
I first met Bean in 1994, when Lockheed had just bought General Dynamics’ Fort Worth unit (which made the F-16) and was in the process of merging with Martin. His team was working hard to land a big fighter order from the United Arab Emirates, which wanted more range and weapons load than the standard F-16 could offer.
A dozen years before that, GD had tested the F-16XL, with an arrowhead wing shape that NASA had designed for a supersonic airliner. The longer body and thick wings boosted internal fuel capacity by 80 percent. The new F-16U proposed to the UAE was similar in concept, but used a different wing, designed by GD during the competition that led to the F-22 Raptor.
The UAE was ready to pay the development bill—the F-16U promised range that would get the aircraft well into Iran—but imposed one condition. The U.S. Air Force would have to buy one combat wing’s worth of F-16Us.
It was a show-stopper. The Air Force had decided that all its future fighters would be stealthy, and the project to replace the F-16 was folded into the Joint Strike Fighter program. The F-16U would be a distraction at best and a competitor at worst. Eventually, the UAE bought a simpler adaptation of the F-16.
(Excerpt) Read more at airspacemag.com ...
The F-16U
The F-16U would be a distraction at best and a competitor at worst. Eventually, the UAE bought a simpler adaptation of the F-16.
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Most likely it would have been too cost efficient with fewer problems than a totally new design.
A fan of Delta Wings on this end, and the XL then F16U made a lot of sense. Fast Forward a bit.... Now Retrofit the F16U with the F-119 Pratt & Whitney out of the F-22 of which if my memory is correct they are approx the same size. Now you have Super-Cruise. Want to add the moveable Turkey Feathers for Thrust Vectoring as another Block Upgrade? Go ahead. My point is, I think we have so much more in our airframes, especially with all the number of F-16’s we made. It is a darn shame that Defense Spending as a percent of GDP is so low. We need a variety of these platforms that work. Heck Imagine a Block Upgrade to go with a Robust F-18 style gear and folding wings like the X47B for the F16U, Carrier Ops baby...
Two planes that come to mind that were never never produced were the Boeing C-14 and the Northrop F-20. The Boeing had top-mounted engines which, so I was told, provided better lift and less chance of FOD on unimproved air strips. Program cancelled. The F-20 was to be built primarily for overseas customers but when the Air Force showed no interest, foreign governments shied away from it. A good, proven design but no sales.
I don’t know why anyone would buy an F-5 retread (F-20) when they could be mainstream and go with the F-16 or F-15.
Because it kicked butt. 2 Prototypes we lost to they think might have been G-blackout by the pilots which may have been a by-product of it's maneuverability. They took the two 4000 lb thrust J85 engines out of it and put one GE-404 "Trash Can" with about 20,000 lb thrust along with avionics cockpit upgrades and I think fly by wire. It was a Hot Rod, again like the YF-23, sometimes the best plane doesn't win...
F-20 was also a single engine plane. At the time no Middle East pilots would fly a single engine aircraft, they didn’t trust them. They’ve gotten past that barrier now.
The F-20 was a repackaged F-5 and would have had limited multirole capability. Would it have been competitive into the 90s against rivals such as the Mirage-2000, Saab Gripen or Mig-29?
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