henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) (09/18/90)
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer) >From: edat!brian@uunet.UU.NET (brian douglass personal account) >The F-117A is not designed as a ground support aircraft, that is >supporting the Army (I always thought it should mean Army instead of >Attack). Bombers belong to SAC, the F-117 belongs to TAC. It is >truly a Tacitical Bomber, versus Strategic or Attack. Therefore >F is the only designation available. Nope, sorry, A would be perfectly valid for this. It is a USAF myth that "A" means ground support. The Navy's A aircraft include both tactical and strategic (!) bombers. (Before anyone jumps on me for this, the A-3 Skywarrior was a strategic bomber by deliberate design. The only reason it is A rather than B is that the USAF has exclusive rights to B. :-) Indeed, the B-66 is a USAF-mutated A-3.) The A-12 now under development is essentially the F-117 done bigger and better, for the Navy. -- TCP/IP: handling tomorrow's loads today| Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology OSI: handling yesterday's loads someday| henry@zoo.toronto.edu utzoo!henry