Northrop YF-17 Cobra Lightweight Fighter Competition

The Northrop YF-17 (unofficially nicknamed "Cobra") was a prototype lightweight fighter aircraft designed for the United States Air Force's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) technology evaluation program. The LWF was created because many in the fighter community believed that aircraft like the F-15 Eagle were too large and expensive for many combat roles. The YF-17 was the culmination of a long line of Northrop designs, beginning with the N-102 Fang in 1956, continuing through the F-5 family.

Although it lost the LWF competition to the F-16, the YF-17 was selected for the new VFAX specification. In enlarged form, the F/A-18 Hornet was adopted by the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps to replace the A-7 Corsair II and F-4 Phantom II, complementing the more expensive F-14 Tomcat. This design, conceived as a small and lightweight fighter, would ironically be scaled up to the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet, which is similar in size to the original F-15. The Super Hornet has replaced the F-14 in USN inventory, and performs all jet combat aircraft roles in the Navy from attack to fighter, tanker and electronic warfare.