[Widget Jr]

They were many who are not fans of the fighter mafia too. Other than that fighters needed to be able to dogfight, much of what they supported turned out to be wrong. Quantity over quality sounds nice, except they set their quality so low what they called for would never happen. That allowed many of them to have careers complaining about military hardware costing too much.

They also pushed for alternatives to the A-10 and F-15 after they were in service, as if the Air Force would just drop their new planes for cheaper and less capable replacements. There was no way that would happen.

They almost completely disregarded what the USSR was building. The Mig-23 first flew in 1967 and the Mig-29 and Su-27 flew in 1977. If the USSR was going toward more capable, more expensive, lower quantity designs, the USAF was not going to go in the other direction.

[blueunicorn6]

Yep.

I don’t think the Fighter Mafia was 100% correct on everything.

Boyd gained his reputation by understanding the part of science that dealt with airplanes moving at high speed in combat.

He also understood the human element of combat in airplanes at high speed.

He had the ability to see the big picture while keeping the little pictures in mind.

Sounds simple, but that talent is rare.