In the mid-80’s Israel set out to develop its own fighter jet…the design was called the Lavi. I understand that it got too expensive,but I have a few questions:
-what jet engine powered it?
-it looked a lot like an F-16, was this just coincidence?
-assuming that this plane went into production, would it have been sold abroad?
Here is a picture (I think)
http://ae-www.technion.ac.il/img/lavi.gif
Here is a picture of an F-16 (Israeli Air Force, too!)
http://www.aviation-art.net/Israeli_F-16.jpg
In the F-16 the wing and tail are separate whereas in the other plane they are all one piece…I used to know the terms for this but I forgot. It has been a long time since I regularly watched that show Wings on the Discovery Channel.
If I understand what you’re saying I don’t think “wing and tail … are all one piece” is an accurate description of the Lavi. The elevator surfaces are in front of the wing instead of behind it. This design is called a canard. A lot of the Rutan designs are canards as well as the X-29. You may be thinking of a pure delta wing such as the F-102 where the trailing edge control surfaces on the wing control both pitch and roll.
Oh, I see what you are saying now. Yes, the angle of the picture of the Lavi makes it difficult to see. Still, not much like an F-16.