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Subject:
Buddy, Can You Spare A Few Used F-16s?
SYSOP
12/16/2011 4:57:00 AM
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45-Shooter
2/14/2013 12:44:26 PM
Considering the obvious need for an effective, low-cost fighter concept, and the fact that the legendary F5 series is finally reaching it's sunset, I wonder if Northrop might consider re-investigating their failed F-20 Tigershark with an eye on bringing it back as an export item for air-forces like the Philippines who need high performance at low cost.
This is a bad idea for the same reasons no one bought it in the first place.
The F-20 was a brilliant concept,
Not really!
combining the best features of the efficient, reliable and easy to maintain F-404 engine with the well designed and robust F5 airframe, offering true mach 2 performance
Not really! It never held enough gas to get it done!
with an airframe that could take on insane maneuvers and still hold together.
The F-5 was never the most maneuverable of planes and all the up-grades did not fix those problems.
The problem, at the time of it's introduction in the 1980s, was the F-16, though more expensive, simply outperformed the updated 1960s era design. (But not by much.)
This is a common misconception based on the published "Plackard" data and ignores all of the other more important factors.
That, and the fact that so many cheap, F5-Tiger IIs were already glutting the second hand fighter market. Now we see that some Nations, like the Philippines, Taiwan and others are finding it difficult to even keep the F-16 in the air, and the last of the Tiger-IIs have finally worn out, leaving a hole in the low-cost market. The only other low-cost fighter out there is the Chinese JF-17, and the F-20 could run circles around it. (And that's with 1980s technology!) Just upgrade to the F-414 engine and update the electronics and radar to put it into the 21st century, and the F-20 could become a world-beater.
This is a tremendous failure of the thought proccesses. Adding the weight of a competent radar and the drag of a decent sized antenna would hobble a plane with too little volume to add all the rest of the kit required to stay alive these days. That is why the F-16 has had conformal fuel tanks, large spine volume for both fuel and or avionics, expanded tail planes etc... added! It is quickly becomming the smallets size plane that can compete. It has been reduced from an all around fighter/bomber to a small and in-expencive attack truck. This is the same reason why no one has bought the Rafale, Mig-29 and to a lesser extent, the Typhoon/EF-2000 has only sold to those who absolutely have to have something better than the F-16 but can not aford the F-16! It is also why the F-16F/XL did not sell. Why did the aging but still most competent F-15 win and sell so many times in the last 2-3 decades Vs the four named so called light weight fighters, in spite of it's geat cost? The same can be said of the F-16 and Grippen. Who bought them and why in the last twenty years?
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