This performance was similar to that intended for the F-108, but inferior to the YF-12. There is also reason to believe the design was not going to be capable of its required performance of mach 2.8 cruise and mach 3 maximum speed. In fact YF-12 got so far along that Congress actually appropriated money to buy the first batch of 50 production aircraft, only to have McNamara refuse to allow the money to be spent.Īs for the T-4, it rightly died and would die no matter what the US does, if only for the utter stupidity of having the pilots rely on a freaking periscope for landing approaches (the nose can only be lowered at very low speed) while in regular flight the periscope had to retract and the pilots basically can’t see at all, except through overhead windows. Now the YF-12, that was a plane which was worth building on its own right, and in fact it reached the prototype stage of development with several missiles fired during trials (F-108 died as a mere cockpit mockup). The F-108 doesn’t make a whole lot sense without also building the B-70, and in any case it was canceled in 1959, which is before McNamaras time.
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