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 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 (slated to be named "Black Widow II" by some accounts)
did some things better than the 22 (first named "Lightning II" but finally named "Raptor."),
but Lockheed is 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 before World War Two when they
submitted the X-32 design for the Joint Strike Fighter competition. Possibly
the ugliest fighter designed SINCE World War Two, 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.
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