Air Force Colonel Albert Piccirillo, an outstanding F-4 fighter pilot in Vietnam, was named director of the ATF Program. His office developed a specification for this new fighter that seemed impossible to attain. The requirement called for an aircraft with supersonic cruise capability of Mach 1.4 to Mach 1.5 (never before had a fighter flown these speeds without using afterburners), a radius-of-action of 800 miles, a gross takeoff weight of 50,000 pounds, and a funding cap of $40 million (1985 dollars) per aircraft.
