A brief introduction to the F16 of the US Air Force

F16 "Fighting Falcon" light fighter, the main light fighter of the US military. In January 1972, the U.S. Air Force officially put forward the "light fighter" development plan, the purpose of which was to verify the adoption of new technologies in fighters, and did not intend to actually develop a production model. Four months later, two proposals for General Dynamics' 401 and Northrop's P600 were selected from five companies that participated in the bidding, and a contract was signed for each company to build two prototypes for test flights.

General Dynamics' 401 scheme military number is YF16; Northrop's P600 military number is YF17, and after the prototype is completed, it has been tested for a year in competition.

In April 1974, the United States decided to choose one of them to continue to develop, making it a practical light fighter, which could be used with the heavy fighter F15 to make up for the lack of purchase due to the latter's complexity and high cost, which was later called the "high and low configuration". This decision was not originally expected by the US Air Force, so the appearance of the F16 can be said to be somewhat fortuitous. In January 75, the U.S. Air Force announced that General Dynamics' YF16 had been selected, which is where the F16 fighter came from.

Although the YF17 was defeated, it defeated the F16 in the later Navy's "high and low configuration" selection and became the later F A18 fighter (one of the main reasons is that the Navy believes that the single-engine F16 is not safe enough to cope with the strict aircraft carrier take-off and landing requirements).

The first YF16 prototype left the factory in December '73 and made its first test flight in February '74. The F16 production version made its first flight in December 1976 and began to be delivered to troops at the end of 1978. It has now become one of the main fighters of the US Air Force.

Foreign users include Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, Israel, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore and other countries, while Taiwan Province of China also has orders. No wonder the F16 has the reputation of "international fighter".

The fuselage is a semi-monocoque structure, and the design of wing-body fusion is adopted, so that the fuselage and the wing are smoothly connected, which can not only reduce the flight resistance and improve the lift-to-drag ratio, but also has a good effect on the structural strength, which can reduce the weight by 258 kg, and is also very beneficial to reduce the radar reflection area. The tail has a full-motion flat tail with a flat plane shape similar to that of the wing, and a cracked airbrake at the rear of the wing root fairing. The vertical tail is higher, the stabilizer is large, and the trailing edge is a rudder with a full wingspan.

There are two large stable wings on the abdomen. The landing gear is a retractable front three-point type. The canopy is bubble-shaped, the pilot has a good view, and the zero-zero ejection seat is inside.

The control system adopts four-degree fly-by-wire technology, which is mainly composed of signal conversion device, flight control computer, cable and action device.

The early F16 was equipped with an F100-PW-100 turbofan engine of Puhui Company, with a maximum thrust of 1,000 N and afterburner thrust of 1,000 N; The F16 produced after 1984 was modified with General Dynamics' F110-GE-100 engine.

This improvement will allow Taiwan's F-16 fighter jets to increase the speed of operation of the computer and increase the storage capacity of the system, thereby improving the pilot's perception of the battlefield.

The most advanced should be the F-16C.

The F-16C single-seat light fighter is a modification of the F-16A. The first flight took place in December 1982, and in July 1984 it was delivered to the US Air Force. The F-16D is a two-seat combat trainer developed by the F-16C.

The first F-16D was delivered to the U.S. Air Force in September 1984.

The F-16C D is a completely new model that has been planned and improved in design, and its performance has been greatly improved. The weapon system includes an APG-68 multi-function radar, a wide-angle head-up display, a mission computer and other fire control equipment, 20mm M61 "Vulcan" 6-tube bulb, AIM-7 "Sparrow" and AIM-9 "Sidewinder" air-to-air missiles, AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles, AGM-65 "Youngster" air-to-surface missiles, anti-radiation missiles and various deceptive weapons.

A total of about 1,780 models of the C and D models have been produced.

At present, USAAF only uses Block50 52+, in fact, compared with many export configurations, the equipment is only a little less (such as built-in ECM), not to mention more specialized variants, such as F-16i, F-16 Block 60, F-2 and the like. It can be said that the F-16 of the USAF is basically a baseline configuration.

However, there are currently plans to upgrade 300 F-16s with more remaining life to newer configuration standards, including an unidentified AESA replacement (almost certainly one of the two SABR RACRs), cockpit interface, and ALQ-213 upgrades. Of course, the specific details and methods have yet to be developed, but the current plan is that FY17 will start delivering upgrade packages, and the main contractor is still Lockmart, and the radar sub-contractor is not formulated by USAF. This configuration should be said to be close to the so-called F-16V configuration on sale, of course"f-16v"It is not a specific configuration in itself, and it still depends on what the specific customer requires.

Such a comparison is meaningless, because the F-16 can have different qualities under the strong military scientific research strength of the United States, and the export to various countries also has its own merits. If you want to talk about performance, of course, it is the BT of the F-16V, its super AESA is even stronger than the heavy fighter, the UAE's F-16E F seems to be a luxury version, but it does not have much practical significance, after all, as a light aircraft, such a configuration is a bit too wasteful, and Israel's own AESA can also be matched with the UAE's.

The advantage of the F-16 is still in its fuselage configuration, the strongest dogfighting ability in the third-generation aircraft, and the "awl" maneuverability of the BT (the tattered Su-27 just stand aside), the original F-16A is the best maneuverability, because it is too light, the Syrian fighters in the Middle East war are basically destroyed at close range, and the United States' own F-16N can even second F-14 in simulated air combat.

It should be the F16C D model, the Taiwanese military has always wanted to buy it, but the United States is worried that it will arouse the strong ** of Chinese mainland, so it has not been sold.

At present, the F16C D is also the main third-generation fighter of the US Air Force, and many countries in the Middle East also use this fighter, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, etc.

It is a model sold to Israel and the United Arab Emirates, and the one sold to the United Arab Emirates can be called ultra-luxury (the UAE has a lot of money): equipped with a series of "ultra-luxury" advanced avionics systems such as active phased array radar, and the one sold to Israel seems to be more pragmatic, but its advanced nature coupled with Israel's strong redevelopment capabilities will never lose to the UAE model.

It is the third generation aircraft in active service in the United States. Specialized J-10A target machine.

This is the addition of "conformal oil."

Box. The f16

At present, the design of conformal fuel tank is very popular, mainly because it has the following advantages:

1. Expand the total amount of fuel storage and increase the range of aircraft

For example, Lockheed Martin installed a conformal fuel tank on the top of the F 16 fuselage, which can allow the F 16 fighter to carry an additional 3,000 pounds of fuel without reducing the equipment space, greatly increasing the range of the F 16.

2. Maintain its overall streamlining and reduce flight resistance

It is well known that streamlined objects experience much less resistance when moving through the air than irregularly protruding or external objects. In other words, the resistance of the streamlined conformal fuel tank is significantly lower than that of the external auxiliary fuel tank. The resistance of the conformal fuel tank is 50% lower than that of the hanging auxiliary tank.

3. Increase the loading balance and improve flight stability

The following photo posted by the landlord is an F16i sold exclusively to the Israeli Air Force. The "conformal fuel tank" is also one of its major features.

This is the F-16E F, also known as the F-16 Block50 52, which is the latest and most advanced model of the F-16 family, and is a fighter specially customized by the United States for the UAE, and only the UAE currently has this aircraft. The electronic system, radar, engine, and fire control have all been fully upgraded, making it a typical and excellent generation fighter. It looks cumbersome because it has a conformal fuel tank mounted on its back, which greatly increases the range while keeping the radar reflective surface unchanged.

It should be Israel's F16i, and the two on the shoulder are conformal fuel tanks to increase the range.

This is the F-16 Block 50 52 fighter equipped by the Greek Air Force.