Very cool.
Curious to see how this will go as Japanese fighter development since WWII hasn't exactly been fruitful due to a whole raft of issues (lack of expertise, innefficient government procurement processes, US interference).
Already that jet has one issue – canopy looks on par with older MiGs when it comes to rear visibility (most effective canopies are teardrops ala P-51D, P-47D, F-86, F-15, F-16)!
F-1 – average attack jet that was basically obsolete by the time it entered service in larg-ish numbers (first delivery 1977 and most were produced in period 1980-87 by which time far superior F-16 and F/A-18s were available in large numbers):
F-2 – upsized and poorer performance version of F-16. Aircraft design was effectively sabotaged by US interference due to terms of trade issues.
The design itself reduced performance over basic F-16C/D Blk 40 and had structural issues.
It also blew out extremely heavily in terms of cost. Japan could've brought a couple of hundred F-16s for the cost of development and production of 98 F-2s.
tackles two subjects from his favorite sculptor.
