This case study outlines the development of the Lightweight Fighter program, including the development, technology, and flight test history of the YF-16 and YF-17. The streamlined and highly successful Lightweight Fighter program effectively used experimental prototypes to introduce a set of new and advanced technologies to fighter aircraft, and serves as an excellent example of technology management, risk reduction in the development process, and acquisition philosophy.

Lightweighting is a concept well known to structural designers and engineers in all applications areas, from laptops to bicycles to automobiles to buildings and airplanes. Reducing the weight of structures can provide many advantages, including increased energy efficiency, better design, improved usability, and better coupling with new, multifunctional features. While lightweighting is a challenge in commercial structures, the special demands of military vehicles for survivability, maneuverability and transportability significantly stress the already complex process. Application of Lightweighting Technology to Military Vehicles, Vessels, and Aircraft assesses the current state of lightweighting implementation in land, sea, and air vehicles and recommends ways to improve the use of lightweight materials and solutions. This book considers both lightweight materials and lightweight design; the availability of lightweight materials from domestic manufacturers; and the performance of lightweight materials and their manufacturing technologies. It also considers the "trade space"-that is, the effect that use of lightweight materials or technologies can have on the performance and function of all vehicle systems and components. This book also discusses manufacturing capabilities and affordable manufacturing technology to facilitate lightweighting. Application of Lightweighting Technology to Military Vehicles, Vessels, and Aircraft will be of interest to the military, manufacturers and designers of military equipment, and decision makers.

In February 1999, only a few weeks before the U.S. Air Force spearheaded NATO's Allied Force air campaign against Serbia, Col. C.R. Anderegg, USAF (Ret.), visited the commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Colonel Anderegg had known Gen. John Jumper since they had served together as jet forward air controllers in Southeast Asia nearly thirty years earlier. From the vantage point of 1999, they looked back to the day in February 1970, when they first controlled a laser-guided bomb strike. In this book Anderegg takes us from "glimmers of hope" like that one through other major improvements in the Air Force that came between the Vietnam War and the Gulf War. Always central in Anderegg's account of those changes are the people who made them. This is a very personal book by an officer who participated in the transformation he describes so vividly. Much of his story revolves around the Fighter Weapons School at Nellis Air Force Base (AFB), Nevada, where he served two tours as an instructor pilot specializing in guided munitions.

The U.S. Air Force wanted an upgrade. It wanted a better fighter jet. One that could stay hidden from the enemy. One that could attack and destroy. One that could defend itself. One that could keep pilots safe. Keep U.S. ground troops safe. Keep Americans safe. Keep the world safe. A jet fighter that all friendly nations could use. This book is all about that aircraft. Part of the America's Fighter Jets series: F-35A Lightning II puts readers into the sky with the jet. This fun book gives young readers insight on how the F-35A Lightning II achieved its goals. And why fewer of them might be made in the future.