Heh, I’ve never noticed that! The canard foreplanes on the 4000 are not deflected at any pic I’ve seen. But the pic above seems to suggest that it was possible, or it would be possible.

Hmm, too bad, here’s a screenshot of mine from FS9, where it has movable canards. 😀

Over what distance?!

I don’t remember where I read it, but it didn’t say at what distance, I’m sorry.

Wikepedia on the subject of canards.

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

The term canard has also come to mean any horizontal airfoil mounted in front of the main wing.

Strakes = an aerodynamic surface generally mounted on the fuselage of an aircraft to fine-tune the airflow. Aircraft designers choose the location, angle and shape of the strake to produce the desired interaction.

If we talk pure delta’s, I think the Mirage 2000 has the best looks! But if we allow dubbeldeltas, nothing beats the J35 Draken! 🙂

But when it comes to sustained turn rates, payload, acceleration, climbs and dives, I’m not sure how the Gripen would come close to an F-16. Sheer power and high thrust to weight ratios often account for themselves.

One of the key aspects of the Gripens performance is that it has very low drag. Even in high G manouvers.
The only official number I have for the Gripen’s sustained turnrate is 20 deg/sec. From what I know the F-16 can manage 21.7 deg/sec. But I don’t know which version. Considering that the F-16 has a much better thrust to weight ratio, the Gripen numbers are quite impressive.
Official acceleration numbers for the Gripen are 30 seconds from M 0.5 to M 1.1. Climb rate, as in m/sec, I don’t know. But it can reach 11.000 meters in 2 minutes from a standing start.

The Gripen can fly at supersonic speeds without using the afterburner, even with an external fuel tank and missiles. That speaks alot for its low drag.

I’d like to see a Gripen fitted with the GE-F414, or the EJ200. 🙂

Well, I like the looks of the Eurofighter. It’s not super pretty, but from some angles it can be beautiful. 🙂

It is not however in the same league as the Gripen or the Rafale. Delta canards usually look good. But the Lavi looks hideous. Also the MiG-1.44 is probably the ugliest delta canard ever designed! The J-10 on the other hand, looks cool, even beautiful from some angles. The Mirage 4000 is not a favorite of mine either, but the Mirage 2000 is very beautiful, granted it’s not a canard design. But the small strakes are nice detail.
The Viggen looks awesomepowerful, few fighters can match its brutal looks.

The most beautiful delta canard of all time are (IMO), the Rafale AND Gripen. I can’t choose between the two. 😀

(The F-16XL looks nice, but it doesn’t come close to the Draken.)

Very sad news! 🙁