F-16 - the industry superiority fighter

hello military aviators sky here and today finally we will meet the plane that has become a symbol of the fourth generation fighter jets the main aerial spear of dozens of countries and just a very popular combat vehicle familiar to any school kid the f-16 Fighting Falcon is a multi-role fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics in the early 1970s it became the most widespread fourth generation fighter delivered in the amount of more than 4600 units and this figure is not final unlike the older brothers the beloved f-16 is not even planning to leave the production lines of both the current owner Lockheed Martin and the facilities of several other countries let's see how this love was born of course as it should be in novels about eternal love this story begins with a scuffle like with all fourth generation American fighters the history of the f-16 began long before its birth in the early 1960s at that time the prevailing theory was that in the future the air combat would mainly be centered on the long-range missile interceptions without entering close air combat this concept seemed logical and very relevant the main problem of the American military were the Soviet bombers and the missile technologies were developing at such an enormous pace that everyone considered these sparkling arrows to be the cure for all problems the second big topic in the military aviation was the economy there was a lot of different aircraft in service and this colorful fleet was getting more and more difficult and expensive to keep in shape the Pentagon tried to reduce cost of creation and maintenance of the new equipment came to a conclusion that there was a need for deep unification meaning the creation of a single fighter for all military branches which in the end became the f-111 it was a breakthrough aircraft but the plan too adapted for everyone was not realized the Air Force applied it but the Navy needed a slightly different plane and they created the f-14 already at the birth of Tomcat the actual experience of warfare began to undermine the beautiful idea of law range missile interception this concept was far from being as effective as were thought previously at this time a new concept started to take shape based on the experience of air battles in Korea and Vietnam a group of aviators and engineers led by Air Force colonel John Boyd and mathematician Thomas Christie formed the energy manoeuvrability theory of combat this concept was the opposite of old ideas a light jet for dogfights instead of a heavy aircraft with powerful missiles for long range interception these ideas were to be implemented in the next fourth generation fighter in 1965 research was initiated as part of two programs the advanced day fighter ADF and the heavy multi-purpose fighter experimental f-x the ADF seemed like a great option but in 1967 a dangerous Soviet bird changed the priorities the mig-25 was a heavy high-speed interceptor capable of flying a speeds of over Mach 2.5 and attacking targets at long distances the lightweight ADF seemed helpless against such a monster in the end the military chose the heavy version and the result of their work was the f-15 Eagle taking off in 1972 Boyd's team which had already become famous as the fighter mafia was of course furious the f-15 showed excellent results but it was still too complex expensive and heavy they lobbied for research continuation on the light fighter then there was another clash of interests on the one hand the fighter mafia which did not recognize neither the f-14 nor the f-15 and demanded to finally create a normal fighter on the other the military industry that had just created the f-15 and did not want to have another competitor in their own homeland and the Congress was looking out all this and thinking Pentagon promised one fighter for everyone then the sailors decided to create another one for themselves now the Air Force has created another for itself and here you are saying that the Air Force needs yet another plane what's next will the Navy create a second plate - hey stop it come on however there was some truth in his disputes despite the fact that the f-15 was an excellent fighter the Air Force realized that it was expensive and they simply cannot afford to buy enough eagles to cover all tasks the idea of creating a light Edition seemed logical so the new program found support in the military initiated the lightweight fighter or lwf program and presented the terms of reference five companies answered the call Boeing General Dynamics Lockheed Northup and Vaught Lockheed and both quickly left the race while the Boeing model was in favor but in the end the General Dynamics model 401 - 16-bit prototype surpassed the competitor it was very similar but still had a number of better design solutions the third participant north of p600 was a more complex but also very promising aircraft that reached the final round General Dynamics and Northup received financing to create their prototypes which received the Y f-16 and YF 17 indexes respectively both aircraft were supposed to fly already in 1974 the pace was achieved the first white f-16 was rolled out of the General Dynamics assembly hangar in 1973 and by the beginning of 74 it was delivered to the Edwards Air Force Base for testing with the first flight scheduled for February 2nd these plans were also surprised even though by accident in January a couple of hoods before the start of flight tests the fighter was passing a series of high speed runs during which the onboard systems engine and landing gear were being checked however during one of the runs the aircraft lost stability and began to swing screeching the ground with its wing tip and tail stabilizer because of this the hard to control aircraft changed direction and was about to roll out of the runway which at that speed would most likely lead to a crash the pilot had no choice but to bring the engine to the maximum and take off it all ended well six minutes later the plane landed yes that was the maiden flight of one of the most famous fighters in the world in the desert almost without witnesses controlled by a sweaty test pilot under the screams of the flight director the General Dynamics Management was not happy News ahead of schedule is of course cool but the fact that the first flight was actually an aircraft incident was harmful to the image in the face of fierce competition so the work was quietly continued and on February 2nd in the presence of guests another first flight was conducted calling it the real first test repeating a hundred times that everything went according to plan but the deadline still got tighter on February 5th the Y f-16 broke the sound barrier for the first time and soon it was joined by the second prototype in summer the north of Y of 17 prototype made its maiden flight but the Congress continued to push spoiling the military's appetites just as they approved the lwf program for the US Air Force yes the Navy stated that the f-14 is too complex and expensive that it would not be able to carry out all the tasks and they needed another plane that could replace light fighters and attack aircraft their Navy Air Combat fighter or the NA CF program risked becoming another expensive adventure but was necessary politicians approved it but with a condition there is no more money for new jets if you want a new aircraft you have to work with the airforce tender and then another voice was heard from across the ocean this time very helpful a group of NATO allies Norway Denmark Netherlands and Belgium announced that they want to participate in the lwf programme their Air Forces were flooded with a huge number of obsolete fighters such as the f-104 and required an addition of something more modern it was great news for the Pentagon NATO could take part in the program supported financially and more importantly purchased a decent amount of new fighters at the same time they demanded the establishment of licensed production at their facilities but unlike the f-14 and f-15 the future lwf was quite simple so the technology transfer was not a problem as a result the joint work was approved and the lwf program was renamed into the air combat fighter or the ACF program yeah they sure love coming up with new observations however the ACF was facing European rivals Mirage f1 sepecat jaguar and saab 37 ii the competition was heating at this time the why of 16 became a favorite it performed a little better in close combat maneuvering and the pilots flag both prototypes liked it more in addition it was equipped with the Pratt Whitney f100 engine like the f-15 which allowed to reduce the costs for maintenance of common power plants in January 1975 the Y of 16 became the official winner of the tender the Air Force planned to purchase a batch of 650 fighters with a further increase in the fleet to 1,400 units the Navy surprised everyone again the Congress wanted to save money on the unification of the Air Force and Navy fleets hoping that they would use the same fighter but in May 1975 sailor said that the YF 17 was better for them some legging behind the 16s was not critical while technical specifications and equipment were more preferable they along with Northup modified the plane and adopted it under the name f-18 Hornet but let's go back to our today's hero as part of the first transaction the Air Force ordered eight fighters six single-seat and two double seat models the design of the aircraft was also slightly adjusted to simplify serious production and to introduce new equipment most of the elements became bigger meanwhile the aircraft got heavier by almost a quarter the first production f-16 a started flying in the summer of 1978 entering the service in 1980 at that time the aircraft received an official named Fighting Falcon although the military often call it Viper after the snake it looks a bit like due to its wing strikes and after the Viper space fighter from Battlestar Galactica TV series which at that time was at the top of all charts at the same time the Falcon was marching to Europe at the Paris Air Show in 1975 the European participants of the program ordered 348 fighters production was established at the dutch fokker plant and at the belgian sabka plant near brussels Charlevoix airport Norway and Denmark were the suppliers of elements the localization scale was quite high the first fighter officially started a service in the Royal Netherlands Air Force in 1979 curiously earlier than the US air force fighter the modern f-16 versions are supersonic multi-role fighters with advanced air dynamics and avionics providing excellent flight performance the fighter is equipped with a fuselage blended wing and four body vortex control strikes a fairly classic solution for the fourth generation this scheme allows to increase the internal volume for more equipment and fuel and to increase the lifting force in maneuvering while the vortex created by the straights increase its lift in normal flight this solutions were developed in the early 60s but the conservative evaders were barely applying them to earlier fighters since maneuverability was the most important goal of the lwf program the f-16 wing received advanced mechanization automatic slats at the leading edge as well as standard L arounds and flaperons in this regard it turned out to be more complex than the f-15 however unlike most of its peers the f-16 has a triplane m finish with one vertical stabilizer which also simplified the design plus under the keel and along the fuselage spine there is a fairing with additional equipment the aerodynamic break on the airplane is a little unusual technically it has to split flaps speed breaks in the tail on both sides of the engine the all turning horizontal stabilizer is shifted back and under the fuselage there is a pair of small rear strengths also in the tail under the engine there is a tail hook like on the f-15 used in the event of the emergency landing the f-16 has a three leg landing gear which despite the small track is quite powerful reducing the requirements to quality of airfields since the air intake is located under the fuselage the location of the front leg had to be changed if it had remained in front under the nose it would impair the quality of airflow into the engine and add the risk of foreign debris damage so the lag had to be moved back under the air intake both the main combat and operational bonus of the f16 is its power plant initially the fighter was equipped with one pratt whitney f100 PW 200 which is in fact a modification of the pw100 from the f-15 with thrust reaching up to 106 kilonewtons this single engine was very effective and became in many respects the key to success of the f16 since having only one engine simplified maintenance but in the beginning the engine was causing many problems the operation of the early production aircraft was subject to many restrictions and in the mid 80s the Air Force initiated a development program of the alternative engine which became general electric f110 over time the engines were modernized became a reliable and more powerful reaching a thrust of 132 kilonewtons and the mass production of the f16 made it profitable for suppliers and convenient for customers who were able to choose their power plant of course plays with different engines are not quite the same they differ in the design of nozzles as well as in the size of air intakes as it turned out the f1 can have greater air consumption so the air intake with these engines is slightly wider naturally the airplane can be refueled in-flight since its range indicators are rather average the combat radius of the f16 C is about 300 miles with armament while the ferry range is about 2,300 miles with drop tanks since it was made for the air force the boom style aerial refueling system was applied the armament of the early f16 is quite classic for the Air Force and is not distinguished by the use of exotics like the phoenixes on the Tomcat the versions a and B were equipped with the short-range aim-9 sidewinder and the medium-range aim-7 Sparrow missiles the Jets brought up a bit later also had an ability to strike at ground targets using standard bombs such as the Mach 82 and over time the least of available weapons extended greatly from light missiles to nuclear bombs a real gladiator set and of course you can't have a dogfight without a good old Gatling gun the f-16 received the 20 millimetres m61a1 falcon so who's gonna control it since the f-16 was created for a fairly dense air battle general dynamics engineers gave the pilots a completely clear view with a bubble canopy and yes a mark for fans of the eternal war of sight sticks and yokes the f-16 cockpit is equipped with side sticks and this is not just a design solution the aircraft received a full fledge fly-by-wire the first mass-produced fighter to employ this system initially the f-16s electronic eyes was the westinghouse aan APG 66 radar their shape had to be slightly changed to be placed inside the nose of the fighter but be functionality remained quite decent with the development of models radars of course also changed with increased capabilities the new f-16 e and f were already using the north of grumman aan APG a tier 8 ours with active electronically scanned array s-- nevertheless the fighter was created as quite cheap in production and operation so it continued to go this way eighty percent of the structure is made of aluminum the share of composites is small in this regard to the machine is quite conservative most of the systems and internal components of the airframe are built with simplest maintenance in mind the great pride of the General Dynamics engineers was the flight resource more than 8,000 hours in general the economy in operation and the large resource are among the main reasons for popularity of the f-16 in the world at first glance these features do not seem important in combat but if you look at it from the point of view of long-term operation and maintenance of a large fleet everyone would like to have a combat ready Air Force capable of protecting the homeland sky in the way that wouldn't ruin the homeland economy the f16 had several exotic options one of them was the f-16 vista in fact a flying lap that flew in the early 1990s new onboard equipment was installed on this plane and also during the ma TV program an engine with multi axis thrust vectoring was being tested on it the series Falcons did not receive such engines but the development in electronics went far some solutions even found their place on the f-35 well since we're reaching for the future toys in some photos you can see the f-16 with an unusual air intake this beauty is called a diverter less supersonic inlet or the DSi a pretty cool thing allowing to simplify the design make the plane less visible on radars and reduce air drag on the f-16 it was only a test but again entered the production on the f-35 what's next the prototypes why of 16c cv and f-16 aft I were working out the so-called independent manoeuvring in which the aircraft could shift in different planes without performing standard maneuvers to do this they were equipped with additional all turning stabilizers under the fuselage and modified avionics the ideas were furious but did not go into the series another option was the f16 Excel created in the 1980s with a huge cranked Aero delta wing and elongated fuselage and no horizontal tail stabilizers the aircraft participated in the tender for the creation of a multi-role attack fighter but lost it to the f-15e Strike Eagle and subsequently was flying in a NASA research fleet over the entire period of operation the f-15 technically passed through several generations at first it was a couple f-16 a and f-16 B then they were replaced with the upgraded f-16 C and D with many problems solved updated avionics and an extended list of available weapons based on this couple the f-16 and for the Navy was created however they never reached the aircraft carriers sailors used these planes as enemy fighters in flight schools so some of them may look like they are Russian the new updated radars and engines came to the f-16 E and F which also received the optional conformal fuel tanks causing some debate about aesthetics but solving the flight range issues the most pumped version was the f-16 V where V stands for Viper in several decades aviators accepted the name Lockheed Martin equipped it with everything they could from active electronically scanned array radar to computers and weapon systems due to all these solutions many of which turned out to be very successful the f-16 became the most popular fourth generation fighter in the world in the United States the fighter serves as part of the Air Force and National Guard and the Thunderbirds aerobatic team flies on them in total there's about 1,200 in addition to the United States the f-16 is part of the air force in more than 25 countries in Europe the Middle East Asia and South America and beside the Thunderbirds the Singapore Air Force Black Knights aerobatic team flies on the Falcons a total of about 4600 aircraft were delivered in addition to Europe the f-16s are manufactured under licence in Turkey at the facilities of the Turkish airspace industry's cooperation as decay f-16 version they are produced in South Korea and of course in Japan mitsubishi produces the f2 fighter although they really don't like it when the f2 is being called the local version of the f-16 now look at Martin's main goal is to enter the indian market at one time their f-16 i-n participated in the indian MMRCA mega tender in which it did not succeed but now they are offering local production of the f21 that is in fact a modification of the f-16 vblocks M&E in the united states itself series production of the f-16 is declining because the US air fleet is full and because Lockheed Martin is making its main replacement the f-35 lightning ii to please the newcomer the falcon production line is being moved from Texas to South Carolina these fighters participated in most US military operations in recent decades and are expected to be actively used for quite some time until they are slowly replaced by the f-35 in the rest of the world the f16 is also one of the main gears of the eternal war machine Israel used it first in the early 1980s almost immediately after receiving it and as wellnot continues to drive the planes to this day Turkey and Pakistan and other countries are doing the same to the extent of their foreign activities what a long and tricky story this legendary fighter has a story that may be coming to an end but it is too early to forget the f-16 it'll probably continue cutting clouds for several more decades and get into fights with opponents that already exist and have not yet been created like and subscribe to the channel 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Channel: Skyships Eng

Views: 606,228

Rating: 4.8820825 out of 5

Keywords: f-16, f-16 fighter, f-16 fighting falcon, general dynamics, lockheed matrin, f-16 documentary

Id: ZtcI8lJKyAg

Length: 22min 27sec (1347 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 10 2020