F16 Horrible Super Speed Aerobatics !!
Genesis
of the successful F-16 fighter/attack aircraft lies in reaction to severe
deficiencies in US fighter design revealed by the Vietnam War.
Following
the success of the small, highly maneuverable F-86 day fighter in the Korean
War, US fighter design changed to emphasize maximum speed, altitude, and radar
capability at the expense of maneuverability, pilot vision, and other attributes
needed for close combat. This trend reached its extremity in the McDonnell
Douglas F-4 Phantom, which was the principal fighter for both the US Air Force
and Navy during the latter part of the Vietnam War.
These
various sacrifices were rationalized by the belief that visual dogfighting was
obsolete, and that in the supersonic age, air combat would be fought beyond
visual range (BVR) using radar-guided missiles. This concept failed in Vietnam for two
reasons: First, radar could detect and track aircraft but not identify them.
Operating beyond visual range created an unacceptable risk of shooting down
one's own aircraft. Pilots were therefore required to close to visually
identify the target before shooting; this eliminated the theoretical range
advantage of radar-guided missiles. Second, the performance of the Sparrow
radar-guided missile in Vietnam was poor, generally yielding less than 10% kill per shot.
The
original F-15 had excellent pilot vision, including being able to see 360
degrees in the horizontal plane. It had strong high-speed maneuverability and a
20mm cannon. In addition to rectifying some of the F-4's deficiencies, it could
fly higher and faster than the F-4, and had dramatically better climb and
acceleration.
It
also had a powerful radar with advanced look-down shoot-down capability, and
relied on the Sparrow missile as its principal weapon.
What
the Air Force needed, the Mafia argued, was a successor to the WWII P-51
Mustang and the Korean War F-86 Saber: an all-new small fighter that would be
cheap enough to buy in large numbers. (The F-104 was not considered a
predecessor aircraft because, while it had excellent climb and acceleration,
its wings were too small, leaving it deficient in range and maneuverability.)
The new fighter would have revolutionary maneuverability, transient
performance, acceleration, and climb at the subsonic and transonic speeds at
which air combat is actually fought. It would have a gun and its primary
armament would be the infra-red guided Sidewinder missile that had proven
highly effective in Vietnam.
In
any case, the Air Force establishment wanted no part of a new small fighter,
with or without radar. It was regarded as a threat to the F-15, which was
USAF's highest priority program. But the Fighter Mafia gained considerable
resonance in Congress and within the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In
1971 Deputy Secretary of Defense David Packard began a Lightweight Fighter
(LWF) program to explore the concept.