"Scott Ferrin" wrote in message
...


Boeing was fourth with damn near no
stealth experience (in the white world anyway) and the historical king
of fighter producers McD was 5th.

McDonnell already had two fighter contracts and GD had one. The only
logic
that would apply is one where the Pentagon wanted to create an additional
provider.

Grumman would have been the logical choice if that's all they wanted
to do. They already had experience building figthers and were
current. Yeah it had the Tomcat but even back then production was
starting to taper off.

Grumman was already building a fighter.

To go from supplying the USAF with
their premier fighter for the last forty or so years (F-4/F-15) to
placing FIFTH in the competition to build a new fighter suggests that
though the USAF wanted it all, aerodynamic performance took a distant
second place behind stealth.

Son, let me tell it like it is, when you take it down the road from
number
one you get less, not more.

???? Less *what*? Performance? It was number one on the F-15 and
nobody who's flown the F-22 will give the nod to the F-15 when it
comes to flight performance vs. the F-22.

If the avionics stay lit and the tails doesn't delaminate on the F-22.

Obviously it could be said
"if they'd made flight performance the #1 priority on the F-22 it
would fly better than it currently does". The thing is, what do you
get these days by making it number one? When it comes to flying what
is more important than stealth that the F-22 can't do?

What you do to maximize revenue is observe Dr. Peter's processes and let the
Pentagon and any stry dogs that happen by make changes to the airplane.
there are always a few milkmen around an airplane project, but the ATF is
it's own dairy.

It might even be that the air force
*did* know Lockheed's entry was questionable aerodynamically but
stealth was important enough to accept it.

Politics.

Joe politician can kick and scream all he wants, it's not going to
magically bestow stealth expertise on a company. Stealth is what got
Lockheed to contract IMO. Bringing GD onboard is what made the
aircraft a fighter. Boeing. . .well they did something.

Tail boom and wire.