The Northrop YF—17 holds a special place in aircraft history. The YF—17 was one of the two prototypes tested in the U.S. Air Force Air Combat Fighter competition, a program which attempted to reverse the trend of increasing cost and complexity of new fighter aircraft, and which resulted in the selection and manufacture of the F—16 as the next generation free world fighter. Even though the YF—17 lost the USAF competition, it was the prototype for the U.S. Navy's F/A—18 aircraft. Don Logan is also the author of Rockwell B—1B: SAC's Last Bomber, The 388th Tactical Fighter Wing: At Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base 1972, and Northrop's T—38 Talon: A Pictorial History(all three available from Schiffer Publishing Ltd.).