Northrop YF-17 prototype fighter aircraft - photos

[Altair]

Northrop YF-17 prototype fighter aircraft designed by Northrop for the U.S. Air Force's Lightweight Fighter Program. It lost to General Dynamics' F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Fullsize image: https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/h...1_fullsize.jpg





Previously:

Northrop HL-10 lifting body aircraft - photos
Northrop F-89 Scorpion interceptor - photo
Northrop XP-79 experimental fighter - photos
Northrop Tacit Blue stealth demonstrator aircraft - photos
Northrop YA-9 ground attack aircraft - photos and video

[Inflight]

One of the two YF-17s are on display at the Western Museum of Flight in Torrance, California.

[WmRMeyers]

Northrop YF-17 prototype fighter aircraft designed by Northrop for the U.S. Air Force's Lightweight Fighter Program. It lost to General Dynamics' F-16 Fighting Falcon.

Having worked on fighter aircraft, but not the F-16, I think I'd have preferred the Northrop airchine. I spent a lot of my time as a photographer documenting problems with the F-16. I'd worked on the F-111D, and some of my early photo career on the same aircraft I'd worked on, and was not all that fond of GD.

[nova_robotics]

Since we're on the subject of F16s, I have a turbine blade out of an F16 in my display case.

[Frank S]

Someone brought up the F111. I had an uncle who worked at GD through their many integrations and name changes until finally retiring from Lockheed Martian, who was as he called himself a lowly class B electrician at the beginning of the F111 project. He noticed what he determined could be a catastrophic design flaw in some of the wiring harnesses he was assigned to install but no one would listen to him at the time. Write up a suggestion and submit it was what he said he was told. It wasn't until initial testing that the flaw was evident to the engineers. My uncle received as plaque and a promotion for his early discovery

[WmRMeyers]

Someone brought up the F111. I had an uncle who worked at GD through their many integrations and name changes until finally retiring from Lockheed Martian, who was as he called himself a lowly class B electrician at the beginning of the F111 project. He noticed what he determined could be a catastrophic design flaw in some of the wiring harnesses he was assigned to install but no one would listen to him at the time. Write up a suggestion and submit it was what he said he was told. It wasn't until initial testing that the flaw was evident to the engineers. My uncle received as plaque and a promotion for his early discovery

I'm not someone, I'm no one, but I'm the guy who mentioned them, and if your uncle is still around, tell him I appreciate what he did. Too bad there weren't a whole bunch of others like him. The F-111 could have been a smashing success, but was not. IMO, the F-4 was a much better airframe. Hell of a lot easier to work on, too. Not saying the F-4 didn't have problems, too, but they were much better suited to their purpose, which was to move fast and lay down ordinance. The F-111 was supposed to do it all, but hey were enormously larger and heavier. A fully fueled, crewed, and loaded F-4 could take off with just a little extra runway. An F-111D could not take off in the same condition. They had to be left several thousand pounds of fuel light, and refueled in the air to get full tanks. That right there is an ENOURMOUS design flaw. As issued, they were $25 million each, and by the time I got to them, in February 1974, they'd each had an addition $2,000,000 in modifications added. Most expensive fighter jet ever built up to that point. Fair in the bomber role, but not too good as fighter, either. And none of the D models ever saw combat.

Bill

[Frank S]

I'm not someone, I'm no one, but I'm the guy who mentioned them, and if your uncle is still around, tell him I appreciate what he did. Too bad there weren't a whole bunch of others like him. The F-111 could have been a smashing success, but was not. IMO, the F-4 was a much better airframe. Hell of a lot easier to work on, too. Not saying the F-4 didn't have problems, too, but they were much better suited to their purpose, which was to move fast and lay down ordinance. The F-111 was supposed to do it all, but hey were enormously larger and heavier. A fully fueled, crewed, and loaded F-4 could take off with just a little extra runway. An F-111D could not take off in the same condition. They had to be left several thousand pounds of fuel light, and refueled in the air to get full tanks. That right there is an ENOURMOUS design flaw. As issued, they were $25 million each, and by the time I got to them, in February 1974, they'd each had an addition $2,000,000 in modifications added. Most expensive fighter jet ever built up to that point. Fair in the bomber role, but not too good as fighter, either. And none of the D models ever saw combat.

Bill

He passed in 2000. Born in 1923, WWII vet Omaha beach survivor Had a collection of every issue of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Science and Mechanics, Mechanics illustrated from their very first issue through 4 years after his death. In his vast library of collected and subscribed magazines there were possibly tens of thousands of magazines all trades and scientific related, like The electrical experimenter, Modern Mechanix and so many others It would be impossible for me to remember all of them. My cousins and I would go up into his attic library to read them whenever possible, So Uncle decided that if we were going to read through them then we should catalog them by year and make covers to store them in. They lived 2 miles away from where I lived so I had to either walk or if it wasn't too muddy or sandy road my bicycle to his house later my motorcycle, We spent years of our spare time arranging some order to that vast collection, I doubt if it ever was completed I can't say about them but I must have skim read 100's of thousands of different articles over the years

[WmRMeyers]

He passed in 2000. Born in 1923, WWII vet Omaha beach survivor Had a collection of every issue of Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Science and Mechanics, Mechanics illustrated from their very first issue through 4 years after his death. In his vast library of collected and subscribed magazines there were possibly tens of thousands of magazines all trades and scientific related, like The electrical experimenter, Modern Mechanix and so many others It would be impossible for me to remember all of them. My cousins and I would go up into his attic library to read them whenever possible, So Uncle decided that if we were going to read through them then we should catalog them by year and make covers to store them in. They lived 2 miles away from where I lived so I had to either walk or if it wasn't too muddy or sandy road my bicycle to his house later my motorcycle, We spent years of our spare time arranging some order to that vast collection, I doubt if it ever was completed I can't say about them but I must have skim read 100's of thousands of different articles over the years

Sounds like a great guy. You were privileged to have someone like that close to you! My dad had a smallish collection of Popular Mechanics, and Popular electronics, and a larger collection of American Rifleman. I was in hog heaven with them, and a regular visitor to the library. A lot of those old magazines are available to read online, now. Many of them can be downloaded, too, so I've got a pretty good digital collection of such material. I'm kind of sensitive to the weight and fragility of paper books, though I love them very much. When we had to move from our "homestead" in NW Florida, the folks that advised me how to pack my stuff told me to put all the magazines at the front of the mobile home, and then proceeded to rip the tongue off. Cost me $500 (in 1986) to have it welded back on. And when I got here to Oklahoma, I had about 80 1.5cuft book cartons, and a flood in the back room took out about half of them. 40 cartons of books. I'm still trying to replace some of them. A lot of them were fiction, but there were some great how-to books and technical books, too. I've got 465GB of books and magazines on my 10.5" Samsung tablet, which is very readable. About the same on my phone and more on the desktop computer. What I want is the entire Library of Congress, but can't afford that yet.

Bill

[Frank S]

I had about 80 1.5cuft book cartons, and a flood in the back room took out about half of them. 40 cartons of books. I'm still trying to replace some of them. A lot of them were fiction, but there were some great how-to books and technical books, too. I've got 465GB of books and magazines on my 10.5" Samsung tablet, which is very readable. About the same on my phone and more on the desktop computer. What I want is the entire Library of Congress, but can't afford that yet.

Bill

Oh to have the libraries back again that I had accumulated and lost due to fire flood, theft and yes even sold and donated away.
The library of Congress? Now that would be an interesting collection to have but I would settle for the libraries of the ancients and a Rosetta stone, starting with Ashurbanipal's vast collection of clay tablets.
But the thing I would do if were possible, would be to travel back through time to the very first moment life arrived on this planet which I am firmly convinced was more than likely brought here from another place possibly billions of years prior to anything we think we know about the existence of life on this planet. and if it was brought here by other beings, I would try to somehow make a copy of those beings' historical knowledge to have in my personal collection.

[WmRMeyers]

Oh to have the libraries back again that I had accumulated and lost due to fire flood, theft and yes even sold and donated away.
The library of Congress? Now that would be an interesting collection to have but I would settle for the libraries of the ancients and a Rosetta stone, starting with Ashurbanipal's vast collection of clay tablets.
But the thing I would do if were possible, would be to travel back through time to the very first moment life arrived on this planet which I am firmly convinced was more than likely brought here from another place possibly billions of years prior to anything we think we know about the existence of life on this planet. and if it was brought here by other beings, I would try to somehow make a copy of those beings' historical knowledge to have in my personal collection.

I've been a fan of the Epic of Gilgamesh since I read a book by Wilson Tucker called "The Time Masters." IMO, world's oldest science fiction novel, while at the same time being a history & travelogue. Wife found for me, a guy who plays the music of the time and sings the songs, of Gilgamesh, his friend, Enkidu, and their travels, and battles. One of those is the lament for Enkidu. This music is about 5000 years old, and had me crying.

I spent several years in the Middle East, or SW Asia, and this sounds much like the traditional music there... which considering Uruk is on the bank of the Euphrates river... It's called Warka now, about 58 miles from Ur, is probably not surprising.

And I would have the best translations of all that material, too! Unfortunately, I don't have much facility at learning languages. I tried for decades to learn to read and speak Spanish fluently, as I wanted to read the Poema Del Cid, and Cervantes in the original language, but all I can really manage is the basic pleasantries. Did the same in Turkish and Arabic, except that I didn't get even as much practice in those languages.