Jane's Advanced Strike Fighters

[Robotic Pope]

Here's a fun F-14 'what if' forum thread. http://www.phpbbplanet.com/shipyard/...forum=shipyard
(This is what Ace combat znd JASF should do instead of just throwing in the old retired F14D each new game)

The Russians have shown with the Su27 that if you have a great basic aircraft you can modify it in many different ways to suit different roles and keep it at the cutting edge of fighter design. A completely new aircraft design isn't always needed. The F-14 wasn't stealthy but would have been modified to make it less observable on radar.

The same thing happened to the Blackburn Buccaneer and it's replacement Panavia Tornado. In many ways the Buccaneer was the better aircraft.

[flynlion]

I hear ya Pope, but it's easy to speculate about how good a "what if" airplane would have been because they never built it. Who's to say this "Super" Tomcat would have been any better or cheaper than the "Super" Hornet? Sure it might have been, it also could have been a lot worse LoL.

I do love the Buccaneer. Back when I was a current CFI I helped an RAF Buccaneer pilot get his US license. I loved flying with that guy! Pure fun, even in a little single engine Cessna you could tell he was a combat pilot.

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by flynlion

I hear ya Pope, but it's easy to speculate about how good a "what if" airplane would have been because they never built it. Who's to say this "Super" Tomcat would have been any better or cheaper than the "Super" Hornet? Sure it might have been, it also could have been a lot worse LoL.

I do love the Buccaneer. Back when I was a current CFI I helped an RAF Buccaneer pilot get his US license. I loved flying with that guy! Pure fun, even in a little single engine Cessna you could tell he was a combat pilot.

Yes that is true. Although because it was not a new aircraft design its pretty certain that its performance would be no worse than the F14D which outperformed the f18e/f super hornet. Give the f14D all the gizmos from the Super Hornet plus the conformal FAST pack fuel tanks that were planed and you have an incredably long range strike aircraft. It would have been ideal for Australia too as a F111 replacement where the super hornet is failing because of lack of range. It would also be very unlikely for an update of a current plane to become more costly than designing a completely new one.

I love the Buccaneer too. I often think about 'what if the Tornado never was' updated Buccaneers with all the modern tech and stealth features added (it even already had the intenal weapons bay ) . I'm certain that it would be the best low altitude strike aircraft on the planet