North American F-108 Rapier [#]

North American F-108 Rapier [#]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XF-108

"The North American XF-108 Rapier was a proposed long-range, high-speed interceptor aircraft designed by North American Aviation intended to defend the United States from supersonic Soviet bombers. To limit development costs, the program shared engine development with the North American XB-70 Valkyrie strategic bomber program, and used a number of elements of earlier interceptor projects. The program had progressed only as far as the construction of a single wooden mock-up when it was cancelled in 1959, due to a shortage of funds and the Soviet's adoption of ballistic missiles as their primary means of nuclear attack. Had it flown, the F-108 would have been the heaviest fighter of its era. Following the program's termination, the fire-control system, incorporating the Hughes GAR-9 missile, was adapted for the Lockheed YF-12, which was itself canceled." --Wikipedia

Another "what if" aircraft...cancelled in the late 1950s. If the aircraft had not been canceled, it would have been a lot like an F-15E (it was about the same size, about 50 tons fully loaded), with a very good range, but faster and, I suspect, not as a good a dogfighter, being focused more for speed. Assuming the final design had been at least as good a flyer as, say, the F-104 or the MiG-25, it would likely have been considered reasonably successful design and might have stayed in US service for 20 or 30 years (and longer with allies once it was retired from the US air force). The US version would have used a special long range missile; it is also possible, if the missile program was cancelled, that the plane would have been fitted to fire the AIM-54 Phoenix from its rotary launcher instead. (An export version would have only been set up to fire Sparrow missiles, probably...I don't think we ever exported to the Phoenix or anything else with that kind of range to anyone else.) Or it might have been able to fire both missiles.

ANW

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