Well, as the title say.
some facts
The A-7 was born as a Navy aircraft with the TF-30. Until the Air Force variant, that is. The Air Force told the Navy they really liked the A-7, but the TF-30 sucked.
Hence the Air Force went to Allison, and Allison took a Spey licence from Rolls Royce.
I wonder how GE and Pratt reacted to that. They had steamrolled Allison to the point that, after the J-71, Allison had specialized in turbines for helicopters and C-130s (among others).
The TF-41 powered A-7 was so good, the Navy said "screw the TF-30" and happily bought TF-41 -powered A-7Es that served until 1993 and even bet the pants of Hornets as far as range was concerned.
Of course the A-7, being subsonic, had no reheat. But RR certainly got a reheated Spey for the British Phantoms ! And Allison could certainly had a reheated TF-41.
Hence it is beyond me that , when the F-111B was scrapped, the bloody TF-30 was salvaged and went to the Tomcat, with all the trouble, the irony being the unfortunate Tomcat pilots had to deal with the TF-30 until 2006 (yes, I know about the superlative F-14D ! But it was only a tiny minority of the tomcat fleet, because SecDef Cheney 1991. I also know about the F-401 story).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTV_A-7_Corsair_II#United_States_Air_Force_A-7D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_TF41
And the Tomcat flew in December 1970.
How good would have been a TF-41 powered Tomcat ?
some facts
The A-7 was born as a Navy aircraft with the TF-30. Until the Air Force variant, that is. The Air Force told the Navy they really liked the A-7, but the TF-30 sucked.
Hence the Air Force went to Allison, and Allison took a Spey licence from Rolls Royce.
I wonder how GE and Pratt reacted to that. They had steamrolled Allison to the point that, after the J-71, Allison had specialized in turbines for helicopters and C-130s (among others).
The TF-41 powered A-7 was so good, the Navy said "screw the TF-30" and happily bought TF-41 -powered A-7Es that served until 1993 and even bet the pants of Hornets as far as range was concerned.
Of course the A-7, being subsonic, had no reheat. But RR certainly got a reheated Spey for the British Phantoms ! And Allison could certainly had a reheated TF-41.
Hence it is beyond me that , when the F-111B was scrapped, the bloody TF-30 was salvaged and went to the Tomcat, with all the trouble, the irony being the unfortunate Tomcat pilots had to deal with the TF-30 until 2006 (yes, I know about the superlative F-14D ! But it was only a tiny minority of the tomcat fleet, because SecDef Cheney 1991. I also know about the F-401 story).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LTV_A-7_Corsair_II#United_States_Air_Force_A-7D
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allison_TF41
And the Tomcat flew in December 1970.
How good would have been a TF-41 powered Tomcat ?
