The Northrop YF-17 Cobra was a lightweight fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force’s Lightweight Fighter (LWF) technology evaluation program.
The Northrop YF-17 Cobra, a jet fighter that, regrettably for Northrop, never advanced past the prototype stage but still served as the inspiration for the F/A-18 design, is unveiled in the silent film footage included in this post. The film opens with the prototype plane’s debut on April 4, 1974, and then cuts to footage of the aircraft being tested in flight at California’s Edwards Air Force Base (AFB).
Il Northrop YF-17 era un caccia leggero creato per il programma di valutazione tecnologica Lightweight Fighter (LWF) dell’aeronautica militare statunitense. L’LWF fu concepito perché molti nella comunità dei caccia ritenevano che aerei costosi e ingombranti come l’F-15 Eagle non fossero adatti a numerosi ruoli di combattimento. L’N-102 Fang del 1956 e la famiglia F-5 che l’ha preceduto, insieme ad altri prototipi Northrop, sono culminati nell’YF-17.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon ultimately won the LWF competition, while the YF-17 was chosen for the brand-new Naval Fighter Attack Experimental (VFAX) program. The United States Navy and United States Marine Corps adopted the F/A-18 Hornet in the larger form to take the place of the A-7 Corsair II and F-4 Phantom II, complementing the more expensive F-14 Tomcat. The Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which is almost the same size as the original F-15, was scaled up from this design, which was originally intended as a small and light fighter.
Photo by Northrop via Ron Monroe