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I just finished reading a bio of Colonel John Boyd. Talk about a man that belived in his convictions, its amazing the effect he had on the F/X (F-15) program, and how later his lightweight fighter concept changed how the USAF, and because of the fallout, how the USN conducted buisness with tactical aircraft. I had to chuckle at one passages, in which after the USAF picked the F-16, congress made the USN pick either the F-16, or a derivative of the F-17, which later became the F-18 Hornet. Boyd seemed to gain great satisfaction in the fact the the USN was forced to "eat a USAF jet, after all those years the USAF flew a "saltwater jet" in the F-4. Boyd was no advocate of either the F-4, or the F-14...or any Navy plane in general other than the F-8...

Agree or disagree, the book is a very good read about a man that had tremendous influence on fighter tactics. I find it ironic how close Boyd was to Dick Cheney durring Cheney's tenure as Seceratary of Defense.

Apparently, John Boyd was a unique character. He made a lot of enemies trying to sell his ideas. Even though he was not universally liked, somebody must have kept him around. Was it because he made sense, or because they sought contrarian views? I have tried to understand his OODA loop stuff and it is more difficult than I was willing to endure then. I'm gonna get back to it. He and his apostles try to apply OODA loops to every decision, from what to have for lunch to global thermonuclear war. It gets boring unless you have an application in mind. His E-M theory for fighter aircraft performance comparison is pretty straightforward and useful, but there are other ways to think it too. I think most people would not agree with his promotion that we should have lightweight fighters like the YF-16, because they are defenseless to BVR missiles and hopelessly short ranged. However, his constant pressure probably resulted in the adoption of many important performance features of the F-15. It was criticised by him as being way too big, though. I don't know how he was ever happy with it. I never had the opportunity to meet him but I did listen to a CAS presentation by one of his fighter mafia goombas, Pierre Sprey. He was not well recieved either.

THE CRAPTOR ENGINEERING TEAM <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
"The F-22...It's the poo"





Edited by - a10stress on Jul 15 2004 11:20 AM

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I agree Vette, the F-14 should have always had better engine, remember that the USAF and USN <i>where</i> on a 60-40 cost share for the developement of the F-100PW engine. Assistant SECDEF Packard killed that after the USN was experiencing very severe cost overuns with the development of the F-14A program...

To my knowledge the F-14A and F-15A never had a fly off in Iran. The Shah made a trip to Andrews AFB, and the flyoff was conducted there...The F-14A did steal the show that day, but there was many reasons why. The Grumman test pilots, Don Evans & Dennis Romano, did a few "creative risks" to unsure that the underpowered F-14A did not fall on its face. One was that they remained on a high engine setting as they waited for the F-15A to conduct its flight demonstration, this reduced the agreed upon fuel, but gave the F-14A a comparable T:W ratio, as they ended the demonstration flight on fumes.

Admiral Gillcrist devotes a chapter of his book tothe dynamics of the F-14A sale to the Imperial Iranian Air Force...





Edited by - chadrewsky on Jul 16 2004 3:14 PM