DirtyFred
Posts: 99
Joined: 5/22/2014 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Primarchx Don't forget they were flown by Chuck Yeager, too, so they're all crew-rated as Ace! Chuck tried but Reagan and the US Airforce (the F-16 fighter mafia) killed the F-20. Aviation author Steve Pace wrote of the F-20 as "one of the best fighters that never went into production." Some of the low cost fighters today were inspired by the F-20, such as the Saab JAS 39 Gripen... The F-20 was never considered for USAF service, and the U.S. Navy decided to buy F-16s for its aggressor aircraft program. These two facts essentially doomed the F-20 FMS program. Although the test program demonstrated the potential of the F-20, countries tended to buy the F-16, in part, because it was used by the USAF and USN while the F-20 was not. The development program was abandoned in 1986 after three prototypes had been built and a fourth partially completed. 82-0062 (Northrop serial number GG.1001) - crashed at Suwon Air Base, South Korea on October 10, 1984. Pilot killed. 82-0063 (Northrop serial number GI.1001) - crashed at CFB Goose Bay, Canada on May 14, 1985. Pilot killed. 82-0064 (Northrop serial number GI.1002) - California Science Center in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_F-20_Tigershark
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One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
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