The United States Air Force has always attached great importance to single-engine and single vertical tail steps. Since the 1970s, it has been dominated by double-engine double-vertical tail fighters. After the F-4 “Ghost” fighter was retired, the F-16 became the only active single-tailed tail fighter of the United States Air Force. Although the F-35A is also a single-engine, the F-35 is a double-tailed tail.
Interestingly, when designing the F-16 fighter, the designer also considered the double vertical tail layout, but eventually chose a turbo thruster engine with a single vertical tail layout.
