[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by k9handler

I had the joy of guarding them a few times in my career, although I was told many parts were just borrowed tech from other aircraft such as the F-16.

Much of the airplane was built from A-7 parts and in fact until it was brought out in the open they always flight planned as an A-7. Performance was about the same and did a good job covering. There were some F-16 giblets in it as well as other parts from other airplanes. The magic was on the outside and design, not the internal bits and they did all they could to save money and use proven parts to get the plane in the air sooner.

A long time friend of mine flew it for years and the display in the Pima Air Museum at DM in Tucson is his.

Gary, did you ever run into Col. Gary Sanders at the plant? He was one of the early pilots on the -117 and as an engineer spent a lot of time there in the early days. After the bird became operational he spent most of his time at Nellis or up in Tonopah but you may have met him. Nice guy, we flew together on and off for almost 30 years and a very good friend of mine. He passed 4 months ago in Tucson, a loss to us all.