Message posted by Vahe Demirjian (Member since 04/28/2022) on January 29, 2023 at 20:27:12 PST:
The putative designation A-17 you mention was used by the writers of the article "Swing Wing Stealth Attack Plane" in a January 1995 issue of the Popular Science magazine for an alleged stealthy swing-wing fighter bomber, and the writers referred to this supposed aircraft as A-17 because they were unaware that the label A-16 for an unbuilt close air support F-16 variant was not an official designation, and also wrote without evidence that A-14 and A-15 were used for the losing contenders for the Navy's ATA competition won by the A-12 Avenger II, which was canceled during the construction phase due to cost overruns and technical difficulties before any A-12 prototypes could be built).
Attached link: https://books.google.com/books?id=GNaLDPK9MT8C&pg=PA56&dq=a-17+popular+science+aircraft&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGxbSjt-78AhVjEEQIHS9JDy8Q6AF6BAgDEAI#v=onepage&q=a-17%20popular%20science%20aircraft&f=falseIn Reply to: Re: YF-220 mistake in biography (deja vu YF-24) posted by Peter Merlin on November 19, 2022 at 10:52:35 PST:
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