Originally Posted by
ryan1234
Just curious... why the "F" designation and not "A"?
Just the TFX roots? Was it ever really designed with air to air in mind?
It was never a fighter and not intended for air-air. And the USAF at that time did not have any active "A" machines. The Navy did..
It was deployed with not so stellar results to Thailand during the Vietnam war and some were lost, some never found. But it was a great low level machine and for ingress, it was reported superb. I remember reading about guys going through the Grand Canyon, hands off with the terrain following radar. Maybe not that big a deal today but in the late 60s, early 70s.. BIG deal.
The FB then evolved planning on low level ingress to Russia. And from that later came the "Spark Vark".
Tough to find but this is an image of the chubby Navy version before the Navy CANXed the program.
