LOSERS!!
One of my minor projects has been accumulating models of a bunch of losers.
Below are aircraft that, over the last couple of decades, have lost out in
competiton with other designs. Scroll down for closeups.
First up, the very nifty F-16XL "Scamp," which was Lockheed's proposal for a heavier
version of the F-16 to fulfill an air-to-ground requirement for the Air Force. The
Air Force chose the McDonnel-Douglas F-15E "Strike Eagle" instead.
This is, of course, the 1/72 Monogram snap-kit, the only good kit ever made of
this very cool plane
Then there was Northrop's in-house proposal, the F-20 "Tigershark". Basically an F-5
with an F-16 engine, the lighter aircraft outperformed the F-16 in everything except
load-carrying. But Lockheed marketing outperformed Northrop marketing, and the nimble
little fighter lost any hope for domestic and foreign sales to the already-in-production
F-16, and lost Northrop about a billion bucks.
The very fine 1/72 Hasegawa kit, built in spurious operational markings, with Maverick
missiles and crew added from Hasegawa's crew and weapons sets.
Northrop got skunked yet again when they put their YF-23 up against Lockheed's YF-22
in a one-to-one flyoff for the Advanced Technology Fighter competition. It's said to
have been a close one, and the F-23 did some things better than the 22,
but Lockheed is apparently hard to beat.
DML's rather basic but well-made 1/72 kit, done in markings for Mountain Home AFB.
Unfortunately you can't SEE the markings on the radical butterfly tail!
Boeing had not built a company-designed fighter since World War Two, when they
submitted the X-32 design for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. Possibly
the ugliest fighter designed [i]since[/i] WWII, it nevertheless performed fairly well. But
not as well as the X-35 design submitted by - guess who - Lockheed! The JSF contract stands to
be the most lucrative in recent aviation history. But Boeing gets a big L instead!
Italeri's recent kit, done up as the actual demonstrator plane.
here's to the losers of the world. I wonder if Lockheed is hiring.
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