On Sun, 04 Jan 2004 19:02:19 GMT, "Brendan Grace"
wrote:

Does anyone have any links or info on the Lockheed effort back in the 70s
for competition with the YF-16 and YF-17? It was
a derivative of the F-104 but I don't know what happened to the program or
even if a mock up was built.



Actually IIRC the design that was put forward in that competition was
the CL-1600. According to a *Boeing* engineer the Lockheed design
should have beat out both the F-16 and F-17. Obviously he's biased
somewhat but the reason Kelly Johnson put forth for them losing was
that the CL-1600 was better than the *F-15* and the USAF didn't want
anything jepordizing the program. Kindof like if one of the JSF
contenders had been better than the F-22. There was also speculation
that Kelly Johnson had essentially been blackballed. Anyway the
relevant info is in Jay Miller's "Skunk Works" 2nd Edition.