Comments by "" (@RedXlV) on "How Northrop Grew its Teeth; The N-102 Fang" video.

  1. It's kind of amazing, really. Lockheed made so many design compromises to create a Mach 2 lightweight fighter, and yet Grumman achieved the same speed almost by accident while also having a easier to fly, more maneuverable, and more rugged fighter.
    1
  2. One thing we know for sure, is that even if the N-102 Fang had been allowed to have a prototype built, even if it had beaten the F-104 in a fly-off for the USAF, it ultimately wouldn't have gotten as many export customers. Because the F-104 got its contracts via bribery, not by being the best fighter for the job. Remove the bribes and Japan would've bought the Grumman F11F-1F Super Tiger, the Netherlands would have bought the Mirage 5, and Germany might have saved the British aviation industry by buying the Saunders-Roe SR.177.
    1
  3. Not that different from the F-8, A-7, and F-16. Lots of aircraft have done well with a belly intake.
    1
  4. Look at every single one of the export contracts for the F-104. In all cases, it was the worst of the fighters being considered and yet "won" because of bribery.
    1
  5. It doesn't. N-102 is Northrop's internal designation. It never progressed far enough to get a USAF designation. Had a prototype ever been ordered, it probably would've gotten the designation XF-108. (The actual fighter to get that number, the North American XF-108 Rapier, wouldn't even begin its development until a couple of years after Northrop cancelled the Fang. So it would've been the first unused number available in 1954.)
    1