>Correction: him and the fighter mafia hated the F-15. His work lead to F-16 and F/A-18.

If I recall correctly the F-15 was partly his baby but he only got in mid-way so couldn't make it as good as he wanted it. Then the Lightweight Fighter program was run by him and generated the YF-16 and YF-17 prototypes. The YF-16 won the competition and became the F-16. Then the Navy didn't like a single engine plane (or didn't like an air force plane) and took the YF-17 and made the F-18.

So I doubt they hated the F-15 but they definitely liked the F-16 better. I'm not sure how happy they were about the F-18 given that it was a run-around their LWF process.

Oh I think you're right. My memory of that book is a bit spotty and I forgot some of the nuances of the situation.

I was watching the "Dogfights of the Middle East." One of the aces interviewed was pretty jazzed about the F-15. He basically thought of it as "a flying SAM site!" Considering how dangerous SAMs got through the last half of the 20th century, it's perfectly understandable how a pilot would be jazzed about having that kind of firepower under his control!

Boyd's biography is one of the most rewarding biographies I've ever read.

The F-15 was always a bastard child in his eyes, but he's still a large part of the reason it was so awesome.