Manufacturer: Northrop

Model: P-700

Name: Adder

Type: Lightweight jet fighter

Date: 1977

Status: Prototype evaluation

Country: United States of America

Service: U.S. Air Force

Designation: none

After working on an array of projects, Northrop came up with the P-600 Cobra, which was evaluated by both the Air Force and the Navy as the YF-17A and became the prototype for the highly successful F-18 Hornet.

A less known chapter of the Hornet history was Northrop's attempt at promoting a single-engine, simplified variant for the international markets as the P-700 Adder. Costing almost half of the Cobra, it became affordable to many developing countries as a cheap yet capable last generation fighter.

The US Congress, however, voted for a ban of Adder exports, fearing that such a desirable and affordable aircraft might offset the military balance of some unstable third world zones (the same which, incidentally, ended up procuring reconditioned second- or third-hand MiG-21 fighters...).

A further development was the unmanned P-800 Viper.

I took one of the promotional photographs of the YF-17 Cobra and reworked it by narrowing the fuselage. I then redrew the vertical tail and modified the shadows and light on the tail and fuselage.

Finally, since this was meant to be a demonstrator, I erased the military markings and added a Northrop logo on the left handside wing instead.

• Sleek beauty! (ysi_maniac)
• Your Northrop single-engined is wonderful... and would have been very possible. Take that as congratulations. I know you love very-possible ones... (Tophe)
• I've always wonder why nobody ever created single and twin engine versions of the same jetfighter. The commonality will be so much apreciated by the militaries. (RomaniaTricolor)
• Chine shelves would be awesome if fitted to the Adder. (KJ_Lesnick)
• Neat. So what kind of inlet(s) are hiding under the Adder? Single chin-style like the F-16 or two under the LERX kinda like the F-5? (?)
• Should the slogan read: Go on, Buy one, and an adder, and an adder, and an adder (phat trev)

Enough of those adderworldly remarks! LOL

After working on the Adder, I realized that not only Northrop had studied single engine variants of the basic Cobra design, but that the P-700 designation itself had already been allocated to another project, an advanced tactical fighter proposal for the F-X Program... So I guess the Adder would have been a possible aircraft... but under a different inhouse designation!