...Fooled around, made some inter-service love and nine months later the jet pictured above emerged.
Ok, not really. In all seriousness, this is a cool shot of one of the Republic of China's (aka, Taiwan) 130 F-DC-1 Ching Kuo air superiority fighters taking off from a highway during a recent military exercise held by the island nation. The exercise was meant to simulate a scenario where mainland Chinese forces had eliminated Taiwan's military airfields, forcing ROCAF aircraft to operate from highways.
The jet, known as the Indigenous Defense Fighter, was developed in the 1980s and 1990s when the United States refused to sell Tapei F-20 Tigersharks or F-16s. However, that didn't stop the U.S. from providing some design help on the project, and yes, F-16-maker General Dynamics was involved.
More pictures of the jet below courtesy of China Defense Blog:
