F16 Fighting Falcon Documentary.

the f-16 Fighting Falcon is one of the most significant fighters of the latter part of the 20th century conceived by General Dynamics it is now part of the Lockheed Martin stable it was originally developed from a concept for an experimental lightweight fighter and has evolved into an all-weather fighter and precision attack aircraft the f16 has been manufactured on as many as five separate production lines making it the largest fighter program in the Western world over 4000 f-16s have been built with production still continuing [Music] as early as 1965 the United States Air Force had begun concept formulation studies for a new high-performance fighter these included the FX a heavy intercept an air superiority fighter and the lightweight advanced day fighter or ADF the FX was to be in the 40,000 pounds class and was to be equipped with advanced sophisticated radars and armed with long-range radar guided air-to-air missiles the ADF was to be in the 25,000 pound class and must I have a thrust to weight ratio and a wing loading intended to better the performance of the mig-21 by at least 25% [Music] the appearance of the mark 2.82 capable mig-25 Foxbat in 1967 frightened defense department analysts and prompted a redirection in United States Air Force fighter plans with high performance once again becoming the primary concern the FX concept was eventually to emerge as the mcdonnell douglas f-15 eagle a twin-engine fighter with advanced avionics and long-range missiles the ADF was temporarily shelved a lightweight fighter or lwf program came into being during the early 1970s a request for proposals was issued to the industry On January the 16th 1971 this RFP called for a high thrust-to-weight ratio a gross weight of less than 20,000 pounds and high maneuverability no attempt would be made to equal the performance of the mig-25 Foxbat the emphasis being placed instead on the most likely conditions of future air combat altitudes of 30 to 40 thousand feet and speeds of mark 0.62 mark 1.6 [Music] emphasis was to be on turn rate acceleration and range rather than on high-speed a small-size were stressed since the small size of the mig-17 and make 21 had made them difficult to detect visually during combat over North Vietnam the RFP specified three main objectives the aircraft should fully explore the advantages of emerging technologies reduce the risk and uncertainties involved in full-scale development and production and provide a variety of technological options to meet future military hardware needs in the meantime with the selection of the McDonnell Douglas f-15 Eagle as the winner of the FX contract General Dynamics engineers have been concentrating on studies of a lightweight fiber for daytime dogfighting with only minimal air-to-air electronics being provided these studies had all been performed under the company designation of model 401 the result of these studies was the Y f-16 which was designed and built at Fort Worth under the direction of William CDs and Lyman C Joseph's with Harry Hilliker as chief designer the General Dynamics model 4:01 have been studied in models mock-ups and Windtunnel testing dozens of different configurations before the final configuration was chosen no attempt was made to push individual technological advances the proven systems and components being used in areas where new technology was not required components and detail assemblies were designed for ease of manufacture using low-cost conventional materials where possible in order to keep costs down many of the components were to have commonality with existing or projected aircraft however new technology was to be used in those situations where it would have the greatest effect in meeting performance goals General Dynamics decided to use a single f100 turbofan for their proposal rather than a pair of low-bypass GE YJ 101's which were used by the competing Northrop design a single f100 was estimated to provide a substantially lower fuel demand than a pair of YJ 101 and studies revealed no significant attrition advantage for a twin-engine derangement the single-engine format made it possible to achieve a mission weight of 17,000 50 pounds whereas a format powered by twin General Electric YJ 101 engines would have had a mission weight of twenty-one thousand four hundred and seventy pounds during the early design and development of the f-16 General Dynamics had considered both single and twin vertical tails it was concluded that a twin tail format would result in significantly greater development risks and that a single vertical tail would give satisfactory results provided that it was sufficiently tall the General Dynamics team also studied several different air intake configurations before settling on the final air intake located underneath the nose the ventral location for the intake was chosen to minimize the sensitivity of air flow into the engine to high angles of attack the design team had actually started with a chin mounted intake but it was gradually pushed further and further back to save weight until the process had to be halted keep intake ahead of the nose wheel there are some disadvantages to such an air intake location the mounting of the inlet underneath the fuselage is potentially dangerous to ground personnel and appears at first sight to invite foreign object damage or fought to the engine by the ingestion of stones and other runway debris into the intake however it avoids the gun gas ingestion problem and since the nose wheel is further back it avoids nose wheel induced Ford [Music] four different twink landforms straight sweat variable and delta were reviewed a low sweet straight swing was finally chosen because this was thought to offer the best combination of good maneuverability high acceleration and maximum lift to ensure good altitude performance the team chose a computer-controlled variable camber wing with leading-edge maneuvering flaps and trailing edge flatter arms which could match the camber of the way to flight conditions thus maximizing the wings efficiency since the wing was far too thin to accommodate landing gear members the main undercarriage was fuselage-mounted with the wheels retracting into under-fuselage whirls the wing is made predominantly of aluminium with small amounts of steel titanium and composites materials a number of elements were added to aid the pilot in which he or she might pull up to 9g these included a side stick console layout an ejector seat tilted backwards by 30 degrees and a bubble canopy enabling all around although the lwf requirements specified only minimal electronics the design team recognized that an operational aircraft would probably require a heavier and more bulky avionics package the decision was made to size the aircraft to carry heat-seeking Sidewinder missiles plus an m60 one cannon but to make provisions to allow Sparrow radar homing missiles to be carried at a later date should this be required recognising that the Y f-16 pilot would use externally carried fuel on the outbound trip to the combat zone and then return on the internal fuel the design team allocated internal fuel volume accordingly reducing the airframe sighs and shaving one thousand four hundred and seventy pounds of the empty weight and reducing the loaded weight by three thousand three hundred pounds by doing this the turning rate could be increased by 10 percent and acceleration by 30 percent costs were reduced by using interchangeable left and right-handed tail planes and flaperons most of the undercarriage structure was also common to either side avionics were simple and armament consisted of 120 millimeter m61a1 rotary cannon and two a nine Sidewinder missiles on the wingtips pass stores on two external hardpoints underneath each wing the prototype YF 16 was rolled out at Fort Worth on December the 13th 1973 and was air freighter to Edwards Air Force Base his first flight was an unintended short hop around the pattern On January the 21st 1974 at the hands of test pilot Phil first Rico [Music] what was supposed to be a fast taxi resulted in the tail plane scraping the runway faced with either plowing into the desert or flying Phil chose the latter and in so doing probably saved the entire program the scheduled first flight was delayed until a new right stabilator could be fitted it eventually took place on February the 2nd 1974 again with Phil a streaker at the controls he reached 400 miles per hour and 30,000 feet on two occasions during these early test flights the f100 engine unexpectedly went idle whilst in flight forcing a dead-stick landing temporary flying restrictions were imposed on the ym 16 until the problem could be corrected the fault was traced to contamination in the fuel control valve which caused the valve to jam in the idle position but while the curbs were in effect the Y f-16 had to remain within dead-stick landing distance of the airfield within the air force staff there was a strong institutional bias against the lwf program since they perceived it as a threat to the f-15 program to head off some of this suspicion the program was renamed air combat fighter or ACM by the Defense Department in the meantime the governments of Belgium the Netherlands Denmark and Norway had begun to consider possible replacements for the Lockheed 104 G Starfighter they formed the multinational fighter program group or the MFP G to choose the successor the prime candidates were the northrop YF 17 that daso mirage f1 the syrup j a 37 billion and the General Dynamics y f-16 the winner of the ACF contest would probably be the favored candidate but the mfp G wanted to see if the United States Air Force was going to buy the plane for itself before they made a decision these countries wanted a decision from the United States Air Force by December of 1974 On January the 13th of 1975 Air Force secretary John McLucas announced that the y f16 had been selected as the winner of the ACF contest the Air Force placed a contract for 15 full-scale development airframes but single and two-seat versions would be built that the single-seat had been designated f-16 a and the two-seater f-16 be part of the reason of the decision to go ahead with the f-16 was that its f100 turbofan was the same power plant as that of the f-15 and it was felt that buying more of these engines would advance the cause of the fighter that it really wanted the f-15 political considerations also played a role since with the f-111 program coming to an end General Dynamics of Fort Worth needed the f16 order to stay in business in the meantime the f16 still remains one of the contenders for the US Navy's new air combat fighter order one proposal from General Dynamics was for a single-seat naval fighter based on the two-seat f-16 B but with the space ordinarily occupied by the rear seat being used for increased avionics or fuel but in May 1975 the Navy announced that they had decided not to by the naval eyes def 16 but opted instead for an aircraft developed from the YF 17 which was eventually to emerge as the McDonnell Douglas fa-18 Hornet in February of 1975 the NATO consortium was offered the f-16 at a unit fly away cost of five point one six million dollars based on a total production run of 2,000 planes for the United States Air Force NATO and other countries at the same time the US government announced that it had cleared the f100 engine technology transfer to these countries however in May of 1975 the Y f-16 made its first transatlantic flight for a sales tour to its potential NATO customers and put in an appearance at the Paris Air Show on June the 7th 1975 armed with the assurance of a United States Air Force commitment to the time Belgium the Netherlands Denmark and Norway announced that they had agreed to acquire the f-16 as a replacement for the f-104 G a total of 348 aircraft were in the initial production contract in its new form the f16 offered many of its competitors initially there was some criticism of the f-16s lack of beyond visual range and all-weather capability as well as some concern about the performance problems that the f100 engine was encountering at the time a large network of manufacturers were contracted to build the f-16 under licence in Europe with the final assembly taking place at Casillas in Belgium at the Fokker plant at Schiphol in the Netherlands as well as up the parent General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth production in Europe began in 1978 the manufacturer of the first production f-16 began at General Dynamics Fort Worth plan in August of 1975 this involves General Dynamics in a major modernization of its huge Fort Worth plant which had originally been built during World War two for the 24 Liberator production and had not been updated since the 1960s the production at 16 a differed from the wired 16 having a fuselage stretch of 26 inches 10 inches in the center fuselage permitting a higher fuel load and 16 inches in the nose to accommodate a Westinghouse a PG 66 radar the wing area was increased by 20 square feet and an additional underwing hardpoints was fitted a table of nine external points were now available 3300 sway wanna see 21 on the fuselage centerline for up to 10,000 pounds of fuel for weapons the horizontal tail planes increased in size and a jet starter with a the f-100 server in 1977 the Air Force announced plans to buy an additional 783 as steam is and be at this time the united states air specify that the plane was to serve a fighter-bomber in contradiction to its initial plans for the LW where as a lightweight today five the first full production f-16 a coming from the Fort Worth production line flew for the first time in august of nineteen the first flight of a European belthazor a 2 C 2 F 6 took place on December the 11th 1978 from Cassini the first f-16 A's and B's were delivered to the 388 Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base in Utah in January 1979 that same month the first f-16 A's and B's were delivered to the Belgian Airport the first Fighting Falcons were delivered to the Royal Netherlands Air Force in June of 1979 deliveries to Denmark Norway and Israel began in January of 1980 in July 1980 the main fighting Hawker was officially adopted for the f-16 when the f16 entered service in 1979 it was expected that the aircraft would be replaced by a successor in 1999 due to several reasons both economic and political the f16 will not be replaced by a successor and will not be played out until 2010 and even later in some country in order to maintain the same level of operational capabilities and effectiveness of existing aircraft over the next 10 to 20 years in this world of ever increasing technology an extensive modernisation programme was developed that later became known as the midlife update or m/l you the project started in 1989 with a two-year study of the possibilities to upgrade the f-16 in May 1991 the development phase started which continued until 1997 the f-16s airframe have been subject to more heavy loads than was predicted in 1979 this resulted in several unpredicted hair cracks in some of the airframes bulkheads before an aircraft could be offered for the NLU modification the current state of the airframe was examined in this modification program all bulkheads of the aircraft were examined and repaired if necessary after this process the aircraft would be able to last at least another 5,000 flying hours and can complete its life expectancy or 30 years five test verification and installation or TVI aircraft are stripped to the airframe and reassembled in order to perform all kinds of work including the replacement of hundreds of wiring harnesses the cockpit alone incorporates 100 new wiring harnesses throughout its life the f-16 has been used in tests designed to help engineers better understand certain aspects of flight for example in February of 1980 General Dynamics made a proposal for a fighting fall conversion with a radically modified wing shape which was originally proposed for use on supersonic airliners the project was known as scamp or supersonic cruise and maneuvering program and later as the f-16xl the delta wing was to be of a cranked arrow shape with a total surface of 633 square feet which was more than double the area but the standard f16 wing the research objectives included exploring innovative wing planform and camber shapes to provide efficient supersonic cruise performance while providing fighter like transonic and supersonic turn agility the f-16 multi-axis thrust vectoring program originally began as a joint General Electric General Dynamics privately funded program for a thrust vector version of the Fighting Falcon the United States Air Force initially declined to support the program so the two companies agreed to collaborate with the Israeli Air Force which was highly interested in the program for its own f-16 however in 1991 the United States Air Force right laboratory became interested in the project and now assumed an active role Israel withdrew from the program in 1992 the program objectives included the demonstration while the tactical utility of thrust vectoring in close in air combat the aircraft demonstrated a steady angle of attack of as much as 86 degrees and a transient angle of attack of up to a hundred and eighty degrees in other words the aircraft could fly backwards for a brief time thrust vectoring provides a significant advantage in terms of bringing armament to bear on a threat or quickly but the use of really high angle of attack maneuvers are only regarded as last-ditch operations in aerial combat as any self-respecting fighter pilot knows success in air combat depends on maintaining speed and energy not stopping in the sky even if it does look spectacular a major development of the f-16 was the enhancement of its night and all-weather capability sometimes named this new f-16 first appeared in 1989 and at the heart of its new capability was the lantern lantern is a system consisting of two ports which allow aircraft to fly their aircraft by day or night and in adverse meteorological conditions it provides terrain-following radar or TFR forward-looking infrared blur targeting the information for the aircraft's onboard fire control system and target laser illumination the laser designator can illuminate targets for laser-guided bombs it can also be used to automatically track moving targets on the ground as well as to designate them for the agm-65 maverick missiles it is even possible to designate targets for multiple maverick shots in a single pass another use for the laser is to determine the exact distance of a landmark in order to update the aircraft's inertial navigation system this can be critical to deliver both guided and unguided ordnance without visual references the GEC Marconi holographic head-up display was the answer to the United States Air Force's request for a Hut capable of displaying the Fleur imagery of the lands and pod the design of the new Hut was particularly challenging conventional optics do not allow implementation of such a large combiner glass new holographic technologies were applied whilst ensuring that the HUD installation would not interfere with the ejection line ie allow enough space for the legs and feet of the pilot during ejection in the case of the f-16 the combined a glass of the HUD also serves as a windshields during ejection since the one-piece canopy is jettisons completely thus exposing the pilots of the slipstream the HUD combiner glass needs to be strong enough to withstand these forces remarkably completely functional examples have been retrieved from crashed f-16 the navigation port is on the left the targeting pod is on the run the navigation for a terrain-following radar inflow whereas the targeting pod has blur and a laser designator the Manthan must interface with the flight control and report flies the aeroplane while in Tulane Halloween as well as lanthum the new f-16 also included a new positive pressure breathing system to improve G tolerance for the pilot full provisions of internal electronic countermeasures an enhanced gun sight and the capability for forming moving 100g over all the past Whitney f100 P w220 although the two engines are not routine it's changeable provided with gracious structural strength which raised benign G capability from twenty six thousand nine hundred pounds to twenty eight thousand five hundred pounds maximum takeoff weight was increased to 40 2,300 the owner character would make longer in order to provide more adequate player for the team yeah accommodate the Naga some 615 nightfall comes have been delivered as what is the United States Air Force the Air Force's of Turkey Bahrain Israel Oh Lawrence is remarkable [Music] the block 15:52 is the current production version of the f-16 fighting corner it features improved performance engine either the f11 key is one through nine for the block 50 30 f100 PW 2 0 for the block 52 PF 100 PW 2 2 9 is lighter and more powerful than earlier f100 both engines are rated at 29,000 pounds of thrust although this version first appeared in late 1990 production is still ongoing and will be expanded well beyond 2005 with an interest aircraft delivered to Greece Israel the first block 50 f16 was delivered to the United States Air Force in November of 1991 by early 1997 over 300 being delivered to four different customers new production block 50 and 52 aircraft ordered after 1996 also includes selected features from the midlife upgrade program such as color multifunction displays a three channel video tape recorder and the modular mission the block 50 52 plus is a version which has special provisions for the adverse weather delivery of the mcdonnell-douglas joint direct attack munition or jada the update includes an add-on tail unit containing a synthetic aperture radar providing guidance to 1,000 pounds mark 83 2,000 pound mark 84 and the 2,000 pound PLU 109 warhead other features include passive missile warning terrain reference navigation and provisions for the 600 US gallon external fuel tanks and conformal fuel tanks along the flanks of the fuselage [Music] other features of the aircraft include an onboard oxygen generation system a helmet mounted cueing system an internal electronic countermeasures suite and the Northrop Gruman a PG 68 v9 Raider which is the latest version of the f-16 C and D radar this radar features significant improvements and detection range resolution growth potential and supportive furthermore application of advanced processing techniques enhances the radars ability to operate in dense electromagnetic environments and resists jamming better than all previous models one of the latest customers for these f-16s is the Greek air force having considered becoming the decision was taken in June 2002 order 50 brand-new f-16 block 52 titles with an option of 10 more which was exercised in September 2001 the package consists of 40 single-seat aircraft and 20 CC these aircraft are what the latest batch for block 52 aircraft equipped with the conformal fuel turret [Music] the development of the f-16 from lightweight fighter to attack aircraft means that it can carry a wide variety of weapons [Music] in the air combat role they can carry a variety of advanced medium-range ends where missiles from an Ramsey as well as the short-range Sidewinder missiles these weapons enable their 62 fight beyond visual range as well as at close quarters [Music] it also carries a single m61 vulcan 20 millimeter cannon the m16 also carries a variety of answer grounds missiles such as the Maverick and harm which is a high-speed anti-radiation in the bomber role the f-16 can carry a combination of precision guided munitions including laser-guided weapons and up to 2,000 pound bombs f-16s carrying the two thousand pounds McDonald Dawkins Jaden bones made their debut during the lasting rocky hall you can also carry a variety of unguided munitions such as the Gator submunitions dispenser and 19 round rocket launchers the flexibility and war load is remarkable on a relatively small aeroplane and it is this that has helped make the f-16 so popular with air forces around the world it is also very popular with the public whenever it appears at air shows it is the chosen amount of the Thunderbirds who are the United States Air Force's official spades [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] other air forces also use the f16 as their premiere display aircraft here we can enjoy a fabulous display by really shook ins at the Belgian Air Force at Biggin Hill because of bigan hills close proximity to London and Heathrow Airport there are a number of restrictions on what pilots can and can't do in their displays remarkably Rudy keeps the f-16 within the airfields perimeter such as its maneuverability [Music] [Music] [Music] and the Belgians were operating out of Manston Rudy performed a touch-and-go using the f-16s incredible power to climb away from Biggin Hill it is not surprising that Rudy is a holder of the coveted Breitling trophy awarded each year for the best solo display although the f16 has already been in service for over 25 years it is expected to be the mainstay fighter of the United States Air Force and many of its allies beyond 2015 and still be in operational service beyond 2030 over 4000 aircraft have been sold to 24 countries including the United States Air Force which makes it the most successful combat aircraft of its generation by far [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Andrew Curtis

Views: 262,953

Keywords: f14, f15, f16, f18, falcon, fighting falcon, us marines, us airforce, jet, jet fighter, night fighter, general dynamics, iraq, war, air war, viper, air combat iraq, missiles, day fighter, dcs, il2, f16 viper, general dynamics f16 fighting falcon, plane, airplane, aeroplane, military aircraft, aircraft, fighter aircraft, military video, usaf, usaaf, united states armed forces, aviation, military aviation, top gun, documentary

Id: lTNEZWTjOu8

Length: 47min 45sec (2865 seconds)

Published: Wed May 09 2018