When you supersize the airforce you get this…- F-16XL

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[h.cedric]

*Pierre Sprey* : claims to have designed the F-16/15

*H.J. Hillaker* : "You're not that guy."

[Spaceman]

The fighter maffia where not good designers

They also said that these things are useless: radar, radio, advanced sensors, missiles and other things that are crucial in today’s air to air landscape

[Jun-olt]

Pierre sprey and the fighter mafia being given any credit is a massive red flag to the validity of anything said in this video tbh
They were horrible designers with wrong predictions, Sprey wasnt even a designer he was a jazz label producer who lied to gain fame with his ludicrous claims

[katherineberger]

The Light Fighter Mafia (later rebranded itself the "Fighter Mafia" after the F-15 was a rousing success that combined high performance and heavy payload in one airframe) was far less influential than they want people to think in historical retrospect.

They were right in broad strokes, but the way they were right is actually extremely trivial (and they were extremely guilty of pushing things like James Burton's horrifically flawed "Blitzfighter" concept that would have gotten every single man flying it killed - and no, Blitzfighter was not a "precursor" to the A-10 Warthog, it was an attempt to design a smaller, stripped-down, COMPLETELY VULNERABLE A-10 Warthog and it was laughed out of the room every time it was introduced). "A plane with high thrust and low weight will be a better dogfighter than a plane with moderate thrust and high weight"? NO FUCKING SHIT!

The LFM wanted to take the things that made the F-16 a worthwhile fighter aircraft away from it, and leave it as a single-engine light fighter with a maximum capacity of four Sidewinders - and they didn't even really want the Sidewinders.

[pyronuke]

I find it funny that Hillaker was the only member of the Fighter Mafia who was actually qualified to design a plane, and he tends to be among the lesser known members due to being one of the more reserved ones and even began to distance himself from the group in later years, wich I think speaks volumes.

[pickleboi]

When he said fighter mafia, the laserpig inside me woke up

[khoatran-svje]

Still sad to see the blasphemy of Fighter Mafia being spread around, I've lost all respect for Pierre Spray. And regarding the F16XL, regarding how much of a significant improvement it was in all aspects, from weaponry, range, payload, fuel economy, etc; the air force really should've kept the F16XL. Would've opened up so many options for it today.

[Willtabixx]

Pierre sprey was NOT an aviation engineer. He was a record producer, do research

[tilen]

Lol my man actually hyping up the Fighter Mafia

[Iskelderon]

Nice thing about the 16 being a cheap parts collection and modular from the start is that it can also serve as the basis for a shitload of experiments, hence why NASA loves them as a starting point.

[WolfeSaber]

The rumored F-36 Kingsnake makes use of a wing similar to the F-16XL.

[lim-kun]

Ahh the falcon dorito

*Wizard squadron flashbacks*

[piotrd.]

Oh, to see it come back, with Conformal Fuel Tanks, DSI air intake, GE engine with thrust vectoring and bl. 70 built and avionics, hardpoints rewired for SDBs / JAGMs.... and YF-16 vertical stabilizer for good measure.

[kaylzshter]

This is one of my all time favorite 'what-if' fighters!

I would love to see your take on the Lockheed Martin FB22, which is the ultimate 'I wish they built it' plane IMO!

[motohead]

Ah, the American version of the Saab 35 Draken.

[PilotPhotog]

Another great video and in my opinion, the F-16XL is a fighter that should have been built. That extra range and payload capability looks really good today.

[PasleyAviationPhotography]

Yes the F-16XL was a good plane, but so was the F-15E and that plane just fit the strike fighter needs better. Remember, this was a competition to replace the F-111 so it had big shoes to fill in speed, range and payload capacity.

[blairscartoonshistory]

Funny how the Fighter mafia claims to hate missiles while they claim to build aircraft with lots of missiles on them

[lightningmcqueen]

After I got to sit in the F16 as a kid when my did flew the BudLight MicroJet in the Airshows, I was hooked on it!
It's still my favorite fighter...
I'm surprised those new integrated Fuel Tanks don't affect the Performance of it

[gort]

SCAMP was original purpose of the XL, not multirole combat. You don't supercruise and maneuver at supersonic speed when lugging bombs under the wings. The emphasis on bombing came later when the design was repurposed and entered in the Enhanced Tactical Fighter competition, was was won by the F-15E.

The video omits the fact that the XL didn't really achieve supercruise until it was later given a more powerful engine by NASA. It also doesn't mention that the XL was inferior to the production F-16 in subsonic high G maneuvering due to greater energy bleed.