"john smith" schreef in bericht
...
Ron Monroe wrote:
And, I worked on the flight test program, and I keep remembering how long
ago it was too. To bad I missed the picture. Incidently, it was never
YF-17A, it was just YF-17. The A would have been applied to the
production airplane.

Ron, what was the reason/logic for giving the contract to MDD?
I thought the Northrup project won the flyoff?

Briefly:
The YF-17 lost to the YF-16 in the fly-off for the LWF contract (Light
Weight Fighter) for the USAF.
The US Navy was interested though, mainly because they don't like single
engined aircraft and because the YF-17 was not exactly a pile of junk.
McDonnell came in because they had tons of experience in designing naval
aircraft, which Northrop did not have. In navalised form it became the F-18,
later the F/A-18. Immediately obvious (externally) is the completely
redesigned undercarriage (compare YF-17 and F-18).

Regards,
Herman