With Colonel Everest Riccioni and Pierre Sprey, Boyd formed a small advocacy group within Headquarters USAF that dubbed itself the "Fighter Mafia". Riccioni was an Air Force fighter pilot assigned to a staff position in Research and Development, while Sprey was a civilian statistician working in systems analysis. While assigned to working on the beginnings of the F-15, called the Blue Bird at the time, Boyd disagreed with the direction the program was going and proposed an alternative "Red Bird". This concept was for a clear weather, air-to-air only fighter with a top speed of Mach 1.6 rather than the Blue Bird's Mach 2+/2.5+. Top speed would be sacrificed in favor of lower weight (and therefore better maneuverability and lower cost). Boyd and Sprey also argued against an active radar and radar-guided missiles. They both proposed this concept to Air Staff. Their proposal went unheeded and there were no changes to the Blue Bird.