Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxor
The F-117 was called a fighter simply due to the fact that funding for a "bomber" with the payload that can be carried by one would never materialize. Fighters implies that this aircraft was designed with air to air capability in mind and it wasn't in this case. It would have made more sense to designate it A for attack aircraft but since this was misdirection for funding I guess. It also has/had the benieifet of getting fighter community pilots over. For some reason it also appears to use the old pre 1962 designation system yet the aircraft wsn't in existance at that time.... (though maybe early development had started, wierd black developed planes)
|
Good explanation Maxor.
The 'A' designation would have been more appropriate but as you've said the 'F' was probably used for reasons of deception. Fair enought - it
was a 'black' program. The 'A' designation would also have been more appropriate for the F-111 which was used exclusively in the attack/strike/bomber role by both the USAF and the RAAF (apart from the EF111A and RF111C versions).
Cheers