"Ian" wrote in message
...
Has an aircraft that lost a US (or any government fly-off) ever made it to
production?

The B-32 (Dominator, IIRC) reached low production during WWII after being
bested by the B-29,; it even saw some combat use late in the war. I believe
if you look into WWII and preWWII decisions on production you will find
other examples where a "lesser performer" was entered into production to
either ensure agianst the possibility of later technical concerns sidelining
the better aircraft (as was the case with the B-32), or to take advantage of
other industrial capabilities (i.e., inline versus radial engine production
could impact the decsision to produce a lesser performer). In modern times
the F-18 is a direct descendent of the losing YF-17 in the LWF competition
that saw the F-16 win. The US Army's LOH competition in the early sixties
saw the Hughes OH-6 defeat the Bell 206 for the award of the contract, but
the 206 later became a very successful aircraft, eventually ironically
replacing, in its OH/AH-58 guise, the same OH-6 that it had originally lost
out to.

Brooks

snip