Your design is way too ambitious, and cockpit seems very, very small.

Here is some support to help you recruit pilots….
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_restricted_growth_organisations_around_the_world

It seems small but is actually very normal ( others are oversized ). There was a study done before F-16 about the pilot position.

I am worried about the small payload ( internal ) capacity.

Options enclosed below !

….and with the favourite aviation show pleaser Mig-29 !

Wit the 6.8 m2 frontal area Mig is 2.66 times bigger than A4SF-1G ( new name ) !

Apparently a jet aircraft can never reach 29 000 meters in level flight as where the Helios went in 2004; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_altitude_record

The Tornado was designed to be a Low level A/G strike aircraft, high altitude wasn’t a priority.

I wouldn’t quote Wikipedia on details such as Max Altitude, nor much else for that matter. Official sources are probably best quoting but even those are to be taken with a pinch of salt, actual figures are highly unlikely to be released.

Ok ..I see. Possibly some data in wiki is from the official records ?

I get the feeling any jet can zoom to pretty high altitude with low ammo and fuel…am I right ?

JAS-39 Gripen goes to even altitude with Rafale with 15 240 meters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_JAS_39_Gripen …in par with F-16; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Dynamics_F-16_Fighting_Falcon

Golden Eagle doesn’t quite get there; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAI_T-50_Golden_Eagle

F-CK-1 does reach 16 800 meters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIDC_F-CK-1_Ching-kuo

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I am just trying to picture the general idea what affects the high altitude capabilities.

Almost forgot…the F-15 Eagle goes up to 20 000 meters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F-15_Eagle

The Mig-25 even 24 400 meters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan-Gurevich_MiG-25

Mig-31 also 20 600 meters; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-31

Eurofighter Typhoon claims 19 800 m as absolute ceiling; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurofighter_Typhoon

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I am trying to figure out why some have less ceiling..Panavia Tornado goes to 15 000 meters and sports also 1052 kg/m2 wing loading !

Is the high wing loading reason for poorer ceiling ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panavia_Tornado_ADV

Su-35 goes 3 km higher with 556 kg/m2 ( max ) wing loading.

The four engines will never have the efficiency performance-wise so it’s all about the justification.

You can still fly when 3 engines are out ?!

This is 14,5% smaller in frontal area compared to Gripen ( JAS ).

J-85 forever !