[nuconvert]

pong

[Delta 21]

Have to dig up some of our F-4 Phantoms so this thing will have some competition.

[Kenny Bunk]

Is this the same sort of idea Chuck Yeager had with the wonderful, but unfashionably reasonable F-20 Project?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-20_Tigershark‎

[hattend]

But it does have roughly the same agility as an early-model F-16A,

Really? It can pop 9Gs?

[PLMerite]

“the JF-17 is possibly the cheapest new-build fighter in the world today.”

Finally something from China that’s not just another pimped-out MiG-21.

[doorgunner69]

Nice article, thanks.

The Mig-21 original was a classic, and much better looking than the derivative.

[tanknetter]

Pakistan had bought F-7s and, in the 1980s, hired the U.S. plane-maker Grumman to work alongside Chengdu in an effort to improve the fighters. But U.S. and European sanctions following China’s Tiananmen Square massacre ended the American-Chinese collaboration.

The evolution is pretty apparent in the following pictures, although the JF-17 is another evolutionary step beyond the "Super 7" concept.





Then again, drastic evolutions of existing platforms is nothing new. Bear in mind (and I hope people don't think that I'm badgering anyone in saying this) that the Tu-95 and the Tu-16 (amongst others) have their origin points in three B-29 Superfortresses that diverted to Siberia after being damaged in bombing raids over Japan in WWII.