In article , wrote:

On Mon, 05 Jan 2004 17:35:23 GMT, Ed Rasimus
wrote:

Don't know that we could accuse Riccioni of being LWF Mafia, it sounds
like he was much more Eagle than Viper and definitely not F-5 over
F-4. The Mafia were much more centered on the operational side of the
house than development.

Hey, I was there at the time. Ed Riccioni was one of the staunchest
members of the LWF Mafia. He was a tremendously vocal advocate of the
concept and, after the fly-off, the F-16. He'd tell you so himself.

He was proud of it. After all, they won. Actually, they won twice,
with two different services. And they weren't even trying that hard
the second time.

He commanded the CTF, too, as well as advocating things like the A-16
after he retired. He was a big supporter of the AFTI/F-16, for that
reason.

I remember him coming around Dryden and giving us a briefing he'd put
together about using the F-16 for a new role. I've got the viewgraphs
somewhere, I think. Off hand, I can't remember what it was, though.
Supercruise? It wasn't CAS, because that was earlier. And it wasn't
FB-16, because although he loves the F-16, he isn't stupid. It was
really clever, but unlikely, whatever it was. Something you wished
would get tried, just because it was neat.

Do remember when that would be?

I remember a briefing about 2 years ago that centered around using
mothballed F-16A, Block 10 & 20 aircraft (upgraded) as a shortcut
to UCAV.
It was rejected of course, for several reasons.

--
Harry Andreas
Engineering raconteur