[FtrPilot]

Northrop with the F-20 was the last example of this approach with a bid and a prototype. They lost out to the F-16 because the US had already invested too much in the F-16 even though there was still no prototype.

Your information is incorrect.

The prototype YF-16 ( #72-1567) was rolled out at Fort Worth on December 13, 1973.

The Northrop F-20 Tigershark (initially F-5G) was a lightweight fighter, designed and built by Northrop. Its development began in 1975 as a further evolution of Northrop's F-5E Tiger II

The Lightweight Fighter (LWF) program was a United States Air Force technology evaluation program initiated in the late 1960s by a group of officers and defense analysts known as the "Fighter Mafia".

It resulted in the development of the General Dynamics YF-16 and Northrop YF-17. Late in the program, in 1974, with the promise of European sales, the Air Force changed the program name to Air Combat Fighter (ACF), and committed to purchasing 650 models of the YF-16, adopted as the F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Northrop's entrant in the LWF competition was the YF-17, not the F-20.

The USAF selected the F-16 as the LWF (ACF) winner before development of the F-20 even began.

It is still a pretty aircraft.

[Neverlift]

THanks,

I think I was getting confused over stories I heard years ago (from people flying these). This must have been about the FX sales. I am now thinking Northrop had the plane and General Dynamics had a proposal for an f-16 version for FX but not built an example yet.

I know they were plenty pissed and felt politics, $ etc. were screwing them. Also know they poured a lot of private investment into F-20, but they were still beholden to the Gov allowing them to sell. I do think it was the last time a manufacturer poured so much of their own $ into military product development. FYI my dad was killed flying an F-4 in 1959. I have these recollections from visiting friends of our family during vacations we took throughout my youth.