Re: [FYI] World's Longest page on tracks vs wheels

John Atkinson wrote:

> --- Ryan Gill <rmgill@mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> > I'm not convinced the F22 is a white elephant.
> > Perhaps having worked
> > at LockMart for a time I'm biased, but I think it or
> > the F23 are good
> > for the AF. So is JSF imho.
>
> The USAF has NO competition, and will have none for
> the next 20 years unless the Europeans sell their
> newest fighters to the Chinese in wholesale lots (and
> since the French are involved, this is possible).  The
> F-15 can take almost any plane flying and fold it in
> half--and that's with evenly matched pilots.

The F-15 only excels in situations where BVR kills are allowed.  If the
situation requires that the target be visually identified before it can
be engaged, the F-5 won mock dogfights with enough regularity that the
USAF stopped staging them.  In many respects the never-purchased F-20
was a much better aircraft.  In the mid 1980's, an airforce's dollars
not only bought more F-20's than F-15's, but the F-20's spent more of
their time on the flight line.	I would like to think that F-15 no
longer need a typical 25 hours of maintenance per sortie (versus 8), but
it probably still is a hangar queen.