George Spangenberg

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George Spangenberg was head of aircraft design in NAVAIRSYSCOM.

He participated in the design and development of the original VFX/F-14 Tomcat, and selection of the YF-17 and design of the F/A-18 Hornet for the US Navy.

He has posted memoirs of this experiences on the web of how the F-14 Tomcat was designed to rectify the lack of maneuverablity and performance of the F-111B. Jim Foster, a U.S. Navy fighter pilot who commanded a group specifically charged with developing Navy aircraft, states that Spangenberg believes that the Hornet can or should not have been scaled up to replace the Tomcat, and that the Navy could have done better than being forced to chose one of the Light Weight Fighter entries.^[1]. Both Foster and Spangenberg believe the further development of the Hornet and Super Hornet over the Grumman Tomcat was made as primarily a political decision at the cost of combat capability.