Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!att!cbnews!military From: dlj@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (david.l.jacobowitz) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: Northrop F-20... Message-ID: <6836@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 24 May 89 04:10:59 GMT References: <6547@cbnews.ATT.COM> <6707@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Lines: 31 Approved: military@att.att.com From: dlj@cbnewsh.ATT.COM (david.l.jacobowitz) In article <6707@cbnews.ATT.COM>, tshaffer@ads.com (Tom Shaffer) writes: > I worked on the F-20 in the Avionic Integration > Laboratory (1983 - 86). It was an incredible plane. > out of their market. When it came to foreign sales, the US > had started exporting the F-15, and though the F-20 was a > great plane, who wants an F-20 when they can get a F-15? While the F-15 is an impressive performer, it is also BIG and EXPENMSIVE. It's wingspan is twice that of a Mig-21, and it's *tailspan* is actually larger than the *wingspan* of an F-5. While performance is important, in 4 out of 5 air-air kills, the target never saw their attacker. In only 1 out of 5 cases was the target downed in a "dogfight." Hence if you think about it, the small size of the F-20 more than makes up for any performance advantage of the F-15. I read that some people at Topgun (Navy Fighter Weapons School) wanted to buy the F-20 to simulate advanced Soviet dogfighters like the Mig-29 and Su-27, but because of political considerations they went for the F-16N instead. Oh well, maybe the Israelis will decide to buy some F-20s... --------------------------------------------------------- Dave J. usual disclaimer implied