G'day gents
For decades now, I can not but wonder how history might have been different in one of the biggest, most important and most profitable fighter competitions - the Light Weight Fighter (LWF) / Air Combat Fighter (ACF) program - aka the General Dynamics YF-16 & the Northrop YF-17, had Northrop had done things different!
I have always wondered how and what the production F-17A/B might have looked like - let had it won the USAF/NATO ACF competition, in place of the General Dynamics F-16!
In the many accounts I have read, it is believed that Northrop forfeited being the winner of this lucrative competition, because it had chosen to to run with a two-engine design - based on a new (and non USAF) incompatible engine the General Electric YJ101-100 turbofan, as opposed to the favoured Pratt & Whitney F100 turbofan, which also powered its new premier air superiority fighter and jewel in its crown the McDonnell Douglas F-15A/B Eagle!
Could I please request the forums talent to do some profiles of the actual Northrop single-engine P-610 - a single P&W F100 engine variant of the F-17?
If so and if willing, could I request a single and two-seat variants in USAF colours and markings (as applied to the USAF's F-16's!)
For your time and effort, such a profile could be very diverse in doing them in all the air forces which actually operate the F-16!
As a side note, I can not but imagine how much things would have been different for Northrop had it ran with the single-engine P-610 F-17! It would not have suffered the humiliating undercutting of McDonnell Douglas with its taking control and market share of the navalised F-18 & A-18 (aka F/A-18A/B Hornet)
P.S In Real World Terms -
The P-610 design was very similar in layout to that of its two-engine P-600 design submission. But it was thought by some to not be as a refined as its twin-engine cousin. Although Lt. Gen Stewart would state that the P-610 looked as good or better than the twin-engine P-600 design. Northrop understood the single-engine F100 turbofan design would also make sense to the USAF, as it used this engine in its premier fighter, the McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle.
But the status of the P-610 designs completion would soon be sealed with the death of its designer, Northrop Engineer Bill Roth, and with his death the P-610 would never be finished.
M.A.D
