Lavi: The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet

overscan (PaulMM)

overscan (PaulMM)

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The Lavi fighter program, the largest weapons-development effort ever undertaken by the State of Israel, envisioned a new generation of high-performance aircraft. In a controversial strategy, Israel Aircraft Industries intended to develop and manufacture the fighters in Israel with American financial support. The sophisticated planes, developed in the mid-1980s, were unique in design and intended to make up the majority of the Israeli Air Force. Though considerable prestige and money were at stake, developmental costs increased and doubts arose as to whether the Lavi could indeed be the warplane it was meant to be. Eventually the program became a microcosm for the ambitions, fears, and internal divisions that shaped both the U.S.-Israel relationship and Israeli society itself. But the fighter never made it to operational service, and until now, the full breadth and significance of the Lavi story have never been examined and presented.

Lavi: The United States, Israel, and a Controversial Fighter Jet traces the evolution of the Lavi fighter from its genesis in the 1970s to its scrapping in August 1987. John W. Golan examines the roles of Israeli military icons and political leaders such as Ezer Weizman, Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin, and Yitzhak Rabin in the program and in relation to their counterparts in the United States. On the American side, Golan traces the evolution of government policy toward the program, detailing the complex picture of the U.S. foreign policy apparatus and of U.S.-Israel relations in general—from President Reagan’s public endorsement of the program on the White House lawn to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s unremitting attempts to cancel it in succeeding years.
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http://www.amazon.com/Lavi-United-States-Controversial-Fighter/dp/1612347223
 

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Thanks for sharing. I've often thought that this program was under-served by existing books and articles. I noticed from the Amazon site that the book is endorsed by Lon Nordeen, whom some of us remember from the History Channel's "Dogfight" television series.

456 pages! Sounds like a good read. :)
 
This looks like a long awaited book on this esoteric project - look forward to the design considerations and other proposals and at 400 + Pp looks to be a worthwhile read for those of us who followed the Lavi's progress and demise in the 80's
 
2016. 456 pp.
27 photographs, 45 figures, 14 tables, 7 appendixes
978-1-61234-722-6

Not a photographic study it seems.
 
Looks like Amazon received their copies early. My order has already arrived. It's easy to forget how big 450 pages is until you pick it up in your hand.

Roughly half of the volume is made up of technical appendices. How and why things work - even some equations sprinkled in. Definitely not a photo-album treatment. I'll add more when I've read it all.
 
Alex119 said:
Looks like Amazon received their copies early. My order has already arrived. It's easy to forget how big 450 pages is until you pick it up in your hand.

Roughly half of the volume is made up of technical appendices. How and why things work - even some equations sprinkled in. Definitely not a photo-album treatment. I'll add more when I've read it all.
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Weird over here in the UK I got an email informing me that my order now no longer has a release date. So thanks for the tip that it is now out in the US.
 
Flyaway said:
Weird over here in the UK I got an email informing me that my order now no longer has a release date. So thanks for the tip that it is now out in the US.
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My copy arrived from Amazon here in the states shortly before Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/Lavi-United-States-Controversial-Fighter/dp/1612347223

I looked and verified that it is also currently listed as in-stock under Barnes & Noble here in the U.S.,and from the Book Depository in the UK:
http://www.bookdepository.com/Lavi-John-W-Golan/9781612347226

Mine was an early pre-order through Amazon. Definitely worth the wait. Extremely well written. The first half of the book covers the development story behind the Lavi in a roughly chronological fashion. It details a lot of the behind-the-scenes politics as well as the military rationale behind the program. The second half is devoted to the engineering and science behind the Lavi, from its aerodynamic design to its weapons systems. All well written and explained.
 
I have received my copy here in Australia (amazon.com purchase), initially I was a little disappointed by the lack of photos in the book but after having started to read it, it is already apparent that the work has a lot of detail previously unknown to me so I have high hopes for the rest of it.
 
Alex119 said:
Flyaway said:
Weird over here in the UK I got an email informing me that my order now no longer has a release date. So thanks for the tip that it is now out in the US.
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My copy arrived from Amazon here in the states shortly before Christmas:
http://www.amazon.com/Lavi-United-States-Controversial-Fighter/dp/1612347223

I looked and verified that it is also currently listed as in-stock under Barnes & Noble here in the U.S.,and from the Book Depository in the UK:
http://www.bookdepository.com/Lavi-John-W-Golan/9781612347226

Mine was an early pre-order through Amazon. Definitely worth the wait. Extremely well written. The first half of the book covers the development story behind the Lavi in a roughly chronological fashion. It details a lot of the behind-the-scenes politics as well as the military rationale behind the program. The second half is devoted to the engineering and science behind the Lavi, from its aerodynamic design to its weapons systems. All well written and explained.
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Thanks again for your thoughts on the book. :)
 
The author of the book has also posted some of the "lost chapters" online. Apparently, the book was originally longer, and the publisher asked to have it shortened for production reasons:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2015/12/lavi-lost-chapters-preface.html

So the author is reassembling some of the dropped material into online posts:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2015/12/lavi-lost-chapters-haunted.html
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/01/lavi-lost-chapters-future-and-hope.html
 
Alex119 said:
The author of the book has also posted some of the "lost chapters" online. Apparently, the book was originally longer, and the publisher asked to have it shortened for production reasons:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2015/12/lavi-lost-chapters-preface.html

So the author is reassembling some of the dropped material into online posts:
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Alex - thanks the site is very useful with a lot of design consideration and the missing colour illustrations which would have made it more attractive

BTW - i will recommend this book as one of the classics - it has some fascinating technical analyses of the Lavi design and some good comparisons with contemporary design apart from the development history and political intrigues - a Must Buy at 412 Pp and HB

I wonder if there is any similar book published in recent times with the wealth of technical design considerations - most authors tend to keep it simple for the lay audience

The author's web site and Blog are a great addition as well
 
The book's author has released an engineering trade summary for the program, as both a blog entry:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/05/lavi-engineers-perspective.html

and as a slide show and video:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/05/lavi-engineers-perspective-video-and-pdf.html

The slide presentation includes a number of illustrations that never made it into the book.
 
The author added an historical summary to his blog. Although I personally prefer the earlier, more technology-oriented postings, I figured I'd add this one for the sake of completeness:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/09/lavi-retrospective-journey.html

Also in video or slideshow format:
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/09/lavi-retrospective-journey-video-and-pdf.html
 
You can tell the author is a structures guy :)

"• More survivable platform

– 80% larger avionics package than F-16"
 
This is definitely a great book. I started rereading it recently and didn't know about the blog. Thanks for that info Alex. More good stuff!
 
I do find the rather cursory treatment of the F-16XL (an aircraft that seemed to offer the Israelis everything Lavi was designed to bring)
a bit perplexing especially since one of the Lavi's biggest advocates, IAF Chief of Staff Amos Lapidot, was, IIRC, the only foreign VIP allowed to fly the F-16XL.
The book, so far as I could find, makes no mention of this.
 
marauder2048 said:
I do find the rather cursory treatment of the F-16XL (an aircraft that seemed to offer the Israelis everything Lavi was designed to bring)
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A good point, although it may just be that any additional F-16XL material was cut from the final edit. As the author points out in his blog, the book had to be cut from 170,000 words down to 115,000 at the insistence of the publisher.
 
The "other" Lavi book by Dov Zakheim (Flight of the Lavi) giving the American side of the story doesn't mention the F-16XL in any kind of detail. It does mention that GDFW offered eight different variants of the F-16 as Lavi alternatives. And that IAI could license build F-16s with Israeli systems. The variants are described as including "night attack enhancements, incorporation of Lavi avionics, inclusion of other American avionics, propulsion enhancements and training-related enhancements."

In the end the US offered Israeli 19 alternatives to Lavi of which five were detailed offers all with Israeli domestic work. They included the AV-8B, F/A-18, the F-15E and AV-8B (1:5 ratio), license build F-16s and license build F-16s with Lavi avionics. Since the F-16XL was not progressing to a production aircraft standard it was no doubt a more expensive option because it would have required a large RDTE spend.
 
marauder2048 said:
IAF Chief of Staff Amos Lapidot, was, IIRC, the only foreign VIP allowed to fly the F-16XL.
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Interesting!!


Regards
Pioneer
 
marauder2048 said:
I do find the rather cursory treatment of the F-16XL (an aircraft that seemed to offer the Israelis everything Lavi was designed to bring)
a bit perplexing
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Someone else appears to have asked the author about the F-16XL/Lavi angle. The response on the blog-site can be found below.
http://john-golan.blogspot.com/2016/10/the-lavi-and-f-16xl-contrast-in.html
 
I know this book is several years old, but I just finished it, and it's.... a mixed bag.

The technical and engineering stuff is great, and the descriptions of the controversy and politics surrounding it is also well told. It's just that the book comes across as ridiculously biased. I think it's an engineer looking entirely at the (genuine) possibilities of what a clean-slate, specialized design could do as opposed to altering a previous, different one (like with the F-15/16), and getting tunnel vision from it.

It reads like every legitimate argument against the Lavi is acknowledged with gritted teeth, and you can feel the disappointment at the wonder-toy not making it into service.
 
Test pilot John Farley had good things to say about the Lavi in his book A View from the Hover.

He got to test fly it in 1991 and was very impressed by the cockpit and user friendly flying qualities that would have made life easier for reservist pilots to do the basics such as handling during take off and landing.
 
from a current Ebay listing (October 2024) of Northrop project photographs
 

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