Special Sub-Topic: The elegant, agile F-16 Fighting Falcon! Authored by: jeff16falcon Sub-topic of: USAF

The F-16 is considered my many to be one of the most influential planes of all time. Which of the following explains this the best?

Value and adaptability. The F-16 was produced by General Dynamics in the mid 70s to fill the USAF's need for a new (relatively) cheap, light-weight figher. It's strength, power, and overall work-horse performance made it last through the millenium with dozens of contries, including the US, still contracting Lockheed for the beautiful bird. At approx. $20million a pop, and unmatched multi-role capibility*, the F-16, in my opinion, is the coolest plane ever :). Although all of the other choices apply to the F-16, the Falcon's success and influence throughout the world is due to this correct answer. *All weather, night, low+high level bombing, attack, air superiority, ACM, interceptor, SEAD, LANTIRN, recon.

Name one of the Falcon's two most widely used nicknames.

viper & viper jet & electric jet. These two names have been coined by pilots. The 'Viper' for its excellent manueverability, and leathality. The 'Electric Jet' for its new (at IOC) fully fly-by-wire control system.

Which modern engine (USAF) will almost never flame out, but is diffucult to re-light?

F110-GE-129. I learned this from a Col. in the USAF (of course a Viper driver).

The conflict that forced the USAF to fill a lightweight fighter role was the ... (Please use correct conventions.)

Vietnam & Vietnam War & Vietnam Conflict. The USAF learned the hard way (after unnacceptable loss rates) that they needed a smaller, lighter (and consequently more manuverable) fighter to compete with enemy air forces. The large F-4 Phantom proved to be too big and heavy to dogfight with the MiG-17, and -21 without heavy losses.

How many air to air kills to losses does the Falcon have in total? (Not just USAF.)

72 - 0. This is the second best air-air kill ratio of modern (post Vietnam) fighters- the F-15 Eagle has only bettered it. Of course the Falcon has many more A-G kills. Also, its total kill-loss ratio is noticably less than that of comparable fighters.

Now for a change of pace. What company first contracted the F-16? (It is now owned by Lockheed Martin.)

General Dynamics. Lockheed continues to pump out the magnificent birds in Texas.

What is the Block designation for USAF SEAD* F-16C/Ds? (*Suppression of Enemy Air Defences)

50 & 52. This is one of the newer Blocks, and is regarded by many other USAF pilots as the friendliest. :)

Another Block question. In the designation of Block numbers, as in '20' and '22,' the difference indicates ...?

General Electric engine and Pratt & Whitney engine. Block numbers ending in a '0,' (i.e. '50') as opposed to a '2,' (i.e. '52') refer to an F-16 that has the General Electric engine. Block numbers ending in a '2' describe a Pratt & Whitney powered F-16.

The Falcon's windscreen is unique. Why is does it stand out among those of other fighters?

It costs a million US dollars. The canopy is not comparably larger than other fighters, and although the canopy does contain copper and other metal alloys to dirsrupt radar return, this is not exclusive to the F-16s. Also please see interesting information for the next question.

The polycarbonate material in the the canopy gives it the ability not to need a integral rung in the front, like most all other fighters. This is because The polycarbonte can withstand a direct hit from a ______________.

seagull at 550 knots. Ret. Capt. Scott O'Grady mentioned this in his novel about his experience being shot down over Bosnia in 1995. (I highly reccommend the book for everyone. Not a Tom Clancy.) Anyway, this stuff is very expensive (as you saw earlier) and provides a phenomonal view that is unmatched (ex. F/A-22) among fighters.

Here's an easy one. The F-16 has 9 stations on which to mount stores/ordinance.

t. They are numbered left to right, 1 through 9. 1 and 9 on the wingtip rails, 2 and 8 the outermost on the wing, 3 and 7 the middle ones under the wings, 4 and 6 the largest, closest to the fuselage under the wing, and 5, the centerline station on the intake between the main gear. 1, 2, 8 and 9 usually have air to air missiles, 3 and 7 typically hold the 'iron' and 4, 5, 6, fuel or electronic equipment.

About how many total F-16 Falcons (all variants) are currently in service with the USAF (including active, reserve and national guard aircraft)?

1500. Numbers are slowly decreasing, and the F-35 will begin to take over the Falcon's role around 2010. The F-16 will be drastically reduced in the USAF's inventory by the 2020's. By then the F-16 will be a 50 year old airframe, and despite still being capable, all aircraft are eventually obsolete and innefficent for taxpayer protection.

The USAF Thunderbirds are the most elite and recognized jet acrobatics team in (or above) the world. When did the F-16 Falcon become the Thunderbird's airframe?

1983. Continuing a most prestigous tradition, the F-16A became the seventh airframe to carry the legacy. The Thunderbirds finally upgraded to the C model in 1992, being the last USAF unit to use the A model. (Sorry, Navy fans.)

The F-16 Falcon is the USAF's primary aircraft that fills the Supression of Enemy Air Defenses role (as mentioned above). Despite this fact, the Falcon was *NOT* the first aircraft to employ the highly successful and widespread AN/ASQ-213 HTS in a combat kill.

f. During the Bosnia conflict, named Operation Deliberate Force, a block 50/52 from the 23rd Fighter Squadron out of Spangdahlem AFB, Germany, destroyed a Bosnian Serb SA-6 radar on September 6, 1995. This was the first airplane in the USAF to employ the AN/ASQ-213 targeting system, or 'HTS' that is used for most all SEAD missions nowadays.

What structural part(s) of the YF-16 aircraft was extended after some type of inflated USAF requirements?

nose & front & nose cone. The nose of the YF-16 was not large enough to accomodate the initial radar designed. The USAF soon demanded that the new F-16 accomodate their larger AN/APG-66 radar.

With the advent of lighter weight supercomputers to control flight, the YF-16 was the world's first aircraft able to have __________ stability.

negative. This was a huge revelation in the history of aircraft design. The advanced computers and new totally fly-by-wire control system made this possible. 'Neagative' refers to the stability of an aircraft that is essentially unstable without the aid of intensly complex computer algorithims to assist in control. All previous aircraft had been designed around positive stability, or when uncontrolled, the aircraft will not lose its ability to fly normally, without drastic changes in pitch, yaw, bank, etc.. If the computer flight control system fails on the F-16, and most subsequent fighter aircraft, they are virtually unflyable. Although this is obviously a severe drawback, safety is very good, and the negative stability now allows aircraft to be much more manuverable and easy to fly.

Another aerodynamic question. On an F-16, you may typically notice missiles, or at least empty rails on the wingtips. The F-16 Falcon was designed with these in order to ...?

reduce wingtip vortices.. Although they do look cool, having any type of parallel surface above and below the wing at the tip will greatly reduce instable vorticies inherent in air flow over a swept foil. Little fins on the C-17, 747-400, and all Airbuses are examples of different designs to minimize the vortices.

In Operation Desert Storm, F-16 Fighting Falcons flew low, in pairs, to locate worthwhile targets amidst destroyed ones in the Iraqi desert. What were they called?

Killer Scouts. Manuverable, and with the right technologies, F-16Cs performed the low-level and often dangerous task of marking targets. They would spot them using IR, radar, and visual methods, then pass on the information to other strike aircraft and/or actively lase them with their LANTIRN pods.

The United States Navy simply couldn't go without having a few of their own Fightin' Falcons. Used primarily in their Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN), what is the (capital) letter that designates the Falcon's as theirs?

N & F-16N. The good ol' Falcon gave the Mavericks a tough time at Miramar, and now the familiar 'Top Gun' has been assimilated into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center (NSAWC) at NAS Fallon, NV. ('N' stands for Navy or Naval version.)

Thanks for taking my quiz, hope you had fun! We'll end on a lighter note. Which airplane flew the most combat sorties in the first Gulf War ('91) and the second ('03)?

F-16 Fighting Falcon. With over 13,500 sorties, the Falcon was clearly the work horse of the war. Thanks for taking my quiz, I hope you had fun and learned something interesting. Please feel free to send me a message on errors, questions or comments.