Scaled Composites Model 437 Vanguard

[NMaude]

Yes. it is a 'trad-ish' layout, but proportions remind me of the so-neat sub-scale delta which was built and flown to test planform of what became the RAF's Avro Vulcan...

Are, yes, the Avro 707.

 

[Scott Kenny]

That's all well and good, but the Vietnam War showed how bad it was when the F-4B didn't have a cannon for close combat.

Which was an artifact of the extremely restrictive US Rules of Engagement, requiring Positive Visual ID of a target before engaging.

Today, IRSTs with 20x+ magnification built in are more or less standard equipment on aircraft, so you can visually ID an aircraft at 10+nmi/20km. The only time a gun is still really useful is for Air Policing, as a stream of tracers is a great way to shout "hey, stupid" at a non-responding aircraft.

 

[NMaude]

Which was an artifact of the extremely restrictive US Rules of Engagement, requiring Positive Visual ID of a target before engaging.

You can blame Johnston and McNarama for that bit of idiocy, their idiotic rules about targets the USAF, USN and USMC could and could not strike greatly prolonged the Vietnam war also preventing the US from steam-rolling North Vietnam.

 

[Scott Kenny]

You can blame Johnston and McNarama for that bit of idiocy, their idiotic rules about targets the USAF, USN and USMC could and could not strike greatly prolonged the Vietnam war also preventing the US from steam-rolling North Vietnam.

As it worked out, the US forces didn't have a good IFF system till the 1970s, so requiring visual ID also prevented a lot of fratricide.