i know that there is a F-14, F-15, F-16, F-18 but what about F-17? just wondering…
The F-17 lost out in the Air Force’s flyoff with the F-16 in 1975 to be the new low-cost, lightweight fighter of the future. Anyway, the F-17 was just too good to be lost to history, so it was resurrected as the F/A-18. There are differences, but the basic layout is the same. You can find photos of the 17 in most histories of the F-18. I could kill myself for giving away that old Entex kit of the F-17 I had. It wasn’t worth building, and I’m no kit collector, but I would love own it. One prototype (I don’t know if there were two or more F-17 prototypes built, but I bet other on the site know a lot more about this plane than me), was in a beautiful black-and-silver paint scheme. That was the one in the Entex kit. I also wish I still had a Monogram F-20, but that shouldn’t be too hard to find.
Hope this helps,
Tom
Well… the correct name if YF-17… it was the YF-16 rival… the USAAF choose this last one for the new light fighter, and it become the F-16 Fighting Falcon… and the other one, the YF-17, was taken for the SA Nvy… and it become the F-18 Hornet…
Wasn’t the '17 called the Cobra?
Just a note on the F 20/ F 5G series. This was a fantastic plane that was to be the replacement for the A4 and F5 MAP aircraft. The program recieved much protest from some countries because the plane was too Hot to sell to " Some Countries"… The F 20 program died because of Politics not it’s abilitys. In many situations especially clear weather one on one the F-20 was better than the F 16 and F 18s at almost half their price.
I think it was a good decision to kill the program especially in light of today’s world events.
As for kits. The Hasagawa 1/72 F 20 is excellent and it’s still easy to locate.
There was a show on History channel last week about the Hornet…it was a Modern Marvels or Heavy Metal, I’ve seen it listed as both.
According to that show, the YF-17 was called the Cobra.
Brian
Hey All,
Have to add my 2pennies! There were 2 flying prototypes. They sat at Northrops site at Plant 42 until around 89 or so. I was told one went to Wright-Pat and the other
to the Marines at Pax river. They were beatuiful planes and probably (well as proved by the f-18) had more growth potential than the 16, but good ole politics!!! And it was
called the Cobra.
The F-20 Tigershark was an excellant AC but again politics killed it
Good Hunting,
G.W.
Well ill tell you its not a write patterson, im down there at least once a month and its not . So i dont know where it went but id love to see it, any ideas let me know.[:o)]
One of them is at the Museum of Naval Aviation in Pensacola and the other is at the Western Museum of Flight in Hawthorne, CA.
Here’s two shots of the Cobras at each museum:
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/614332/L/
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/323544/L/
Here’s a shot of the second Cobra at the Paris airshow in 1977, after it had been adopted as the ‘prototype’ for the F-18…
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/252673/L/
Here’s the second aircraft again, also after its adoption as the so-called F-18 prototype…
http://www.airliners.net/open.file/596305/L/
If anyone wants some other images, just Google it. ‘YF-17 Cobra’ is a good start…
Fade to Black…
The Navy vesion of the YF-17 was painted Navy Blue with Gold trim on an overall White A/C. If anyone is interested in building a YF-17 there was an article in the British Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine for modifying an F-18 to produce a YF-17. If anyone wants the reference data drop me a line direct to mats.man@cox.net
Richard
anigrand makes a nice resin kit of the YF-17 in 1/72. check the review on www.modelingmadness.com.
I have a pic that I took of it back in February when I visited the museum in Hawthorne, CA. E-mail me if you want it. It’s before it was repainted.
wow, stuff i never knew ! thanks for the info everyone!
Hey BW,
Thanks for finding them! Like I said Iwas told that but never really knew. I used to
drive by em every day at work and always thought they would have looked better in my front yard. I am surprised that wright pat didn’t get one since it was an AF plane or that
one wasn’t brought back to eddies airplane patch for their collection.
Good Hunting,
G.W.
i was doing more thinking, what came after the f-20 tigershark? the F-21 ?
There’s an F-20 TigerShark hanging in the Air & Space Museum @ the California Science Center in Los Angeles, CA. Anyone can e-mail for pics. I took them last month.
Gotcher’ F-21 right here…
The F-21 designation was applied to the Kfirs which were leased from Israel and used as aggressors by the USN/USMC during the mid-late 80’s.
If I’m not mistaken, a company named ATAC (not the Canadian civair outfit) currently operates a number of Kfirs which are leased out to the military for DACT (dissimilar air combat training) flights.
Fade to Black…
The F-17 is my trump card to winning F-16/18 arguments…[:D][:D]