I doubt if its a variable incidence wing – probably just not assembled propery – the starboard wing is on straight.

The models were in a glass cabinet – it was difficult trying to avoid reflections – here’s a couple more….

I wouldn’t jump to too many conclusions – the model was probably a design study by the MAI students.

Ken

It reminds me Rockwell ATF studies.

i only ever saw MBDA interested in UK spending on a clipped meteor

Integration of the MBDA Meteor on DAVE is being discussed now between the two partners and the JPO for the Block 4 upgrade, if it ends up in that upgrade or latter, right now is (for the public like myself) anyones guess.

The good thing with French tax payer is they can observe what their money is used for each time French are in Opex in Mali, Lybia, Syria or Irak, included on the Charle de Gaulle.
The American tax payer are still wondering what exactly the F22 is used for… even if it is a nice air show bird.

Face meets palm

Last time i´ve checked the Raptors have being used in the ATG and Recon missions for two and a half years in Siria…

Superhornet did not have to contend with stealth features, new avionics, complete change of the wing design, internal bays which bring a completely new fuselage, AESA radar, etc. There is no way that Falcon-21++ (let’s just call it F21+) could have delivered at SH costs especially considering the SH did not have to go through the rigorous acquisition & testing procedures (from tricking Congress that into thinking it was an “upgrade) that a new plane would have and that it differed a lot of it’s dev (RCS reductions, AESA radar, advanced avionics,etc) for later blocks while F21+ included them into its basic design.

What?!

Super Hornet DID had to contend with “stealth features, new avionics, complete change of the wing design” and an AESA set, an for christ sake, the avionics for such an aircraft would have been something very similar to what the UAE´s desert falcon got, the only thing that it didnt have were internal bays, but the entire fuselage of the SH was modified top to bottom.
Dont quite remember the development fees for the Desert Falcons avionics being in the “multi Billion” Dpt!

You can’t say that “acquisition costs would be way lower than the F-35A” when their requirements are so similar.

Face meets palm…
A USAF evolved Viper would have to deal with a VSTOL version, size constritions imposed by the elevators of Midway´s or Lusty´s and full LO signature management… Off course…

Given that it’s proportionally more expensive (F21+ vs ATF) than the F-35 is when compared to the F-22, it’s development and production would have to beat historical realities by wide margins.

Get real, it was a Super Hornet, Gripen E thingy, and we do have the data for it.

That’s a lot of assuming to think that the ATF would have grown in cost but the Falcon-21++ would have shrunk in costs given that the same company was building them both.

Shrunk in costs? I am assuming costs in the same order of magnitude of the Super Hornet development program. And had the Falcon 21++ went forward and GD would not have sold Forth Worth to LM, that sale happened in 1993 after GD lost the ATF, the MRF program went into “jointness” and the Viper contracts for the USAF were threatning to end.

Remember that Falcon-21++ was virtually and entirely new plane (new engine, fuselage, wing, radar, avionics, internal weapons bay, AESA, new avionics, etc). It’s development comparison to F-35 is also an apples-to-oranges comparison since the F-35 has to do the job of 3 planes and the Falcon-21++ just one.

Precisely, an apples to apples comparison would have been with the Super Hornet. And even an entirely new design from top to bottom would not have the “Lusty´s elevators” (VSTOL and Marine Corps/RN external dimensions) or the RCS requirements, it would have been a vastly simpler program.

Cheers

How likely is it that the f35 will be cancelled for the fa18

The entire program getting canned? Nil…
But i wouldnt discount the possibility of the naval variants getting slashed (or even canning the “C”) and being partly replaced by more SH´s orders.

Um, new airframe, new wing, new engine, new avionics, now radar (AESA), internal weapons, etc, etc…

That is no longer an F-16.

Too bad they deleted the proposed pic.

Yep, that was pretty much a new aircraft, there are a few pictures of the later LM F-16X wich should have some relation with the GD´s Falcon 21++, but how much, well, that i dont know.