US Combat Aircraft Fly-Off Competitions: Winners, Losers, and What Might Have Been
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Author: Erik Simonsen
Publisher: Specialty Press
ISBN: 978-1-5800722-7-4
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 228
In the interest of getting the best aircraft for the taxpayer's dollars, the US military employed fly-off competitions throughout much of the Cold War era. With aircraft designs and performance changing almost daily, these competitions helped spur on innovation and push aircraft manufacturers to try new concepts. This book examines these fly-off competitions, showing how the aircraft changed throughout the competition and also throwing in a bit of a what-if by illustrating how the losers might have looked had they won.
The book covers both fighters and bombers with ten different competitions documented. The first competition is the immediate post-war search for a jet-powered medium bomber. This competition included the North American XB-45, Convair XB-46, Boeing XB-47, and Martin XB-48. Next up comes another medium competition, this time with the North American AJ-1 Savage, the B-45 (again), the Avro CF-100, the Martin XB-51, and the English Electric Canberra. The first fighter competition covered is the search for a penetration fighter, with the McDonnell XF-88, Lockheed XF-90, North American YF-93A, and the McDonnell F-101. Heavy bombers are next with the competition between the Boeing YB-52 and the Convair YB-60.
Moving into the supersonic era, the first pairing there is the Republic YF-105A and the North American F-107A. The US Navy followed suit with a competition between the McDonnell F4H-1 Phantom and the Chance-Vought F8U-3 Crusader III. Entering into the 1970s, the next competition is between the Northrop YA-9A and the Fairchild YA-10A. The classic lightweight fighter competition is next, pitting the General Dynamics YF-16 against the Northrop YF-17. The last two competitions covered are the Lockheed Martin YF-22 against the Northrop YF-23 and the Boeing X-32 against the Lockheed Martin X-35.
Each competition chapter provides a solid written text that outlines the design and performance of the aircraft. This is then complemented with lots of photographs and illustrations showing the aircraft in both their testing phases as well as those interesting what-if concepts had the losers actually won and entered service. In some cases, that is not much of a stretch. For example, the YF-17 ended up evolving into the F-18 Hornet, and the AJ-1, B-45, and CF-100 all saw service alongside the Canberra.
This is an interesting look into the competition process as well as a useful history of aviation evolution during the Cold War era. My thanks to Specialty Press for the review copy.