Quote:
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Originally Posted by Sailor Steve
A friend of mine who has worked off and on as an aerodynamics consultant for the Air Force told me once got to talk to a designer from Northrop. When he asked him how come the Air Force went with the F-16 when Northrop's F-17 Cobra was arguably the better design, the designer replied "It's simple, really: they're better at getting generals laid than we are."
True or not, it's a great quote.
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The YF-17 was actually was inferior from a maneuverability standpoint (The top priority was dogfighting for the competition), under-powered, and more expensive. Everything else was neck and neck. This quote comes from a disgruntled Northrup employee is all. The Navy took it due to its wants of dual engines for carrier ops, redesigned it to have a better powerplant, and redesignated it the F/A-18. Still to this day, the F-16 is the better dogfighter.
-S