3D model
Turn it over
A procedural model built in Blender from published dimensions, drawings and photographs, painted as General Dynamics F-16CM Fighting Falcon Block 50 serial 01-7052 of the 77th Fighter Squadron ‘Gamblers’, 20th Fighter Wing, Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, as photographed at Nellis during Red Flag 16-2 in March 2016 (no F-16 is in a UK museum): the American lightweight fighter of 1974, with a blended wing and body, leading-edge strakes, a chin intake (here the larger Block 50 inlet for the General Electric F110-GE-129 turbofan), a frameless bubble canopy with a gold tint, a single fin over twin ventral fins, all-moving tailplanes and wing-tip missile launchers: two-tone grey, FS 36118 along the spine and FS 36270 elsewhere, a warm grey radome, dark grey ‘SW’ and ‘AF 01 052’ on the fin, a red fin band with ‘GAMBLERS’, simplified Air Combat Command and 20th Fighter Wing badges and low-visibility national insignia, parked with two 370-gallon drop tanks, targeting and HTS pods and empty missile launchers, in place of the missiles and electronic-warfare pod it carried in the photographs (shape from a three-view of the F-16A, with the wider inlet and nozzle styled from photographs of other F-16s, so their exact outlines are estimates; wing insignia are inferred from USAF practice, and the flank emblem and small stencils are left off). Drag to orbit, scroll or pinch to zoom · download .glb (827 KB)
Data plate
Specification
- First flight2 February 1974
- Built4,600+
- Top speedMach 2.0
- Engine1 × General Electric F110-GE-129 turbofan with afterburning, about 29,000 lbf (129 kN)
- Crew1
- Wingspan9.45 m
- Length15.03 m
- Height5.09 m
- In service1979–present
- RoleMulti-role fighter
- MakerGeneral Dynamics, Fort Worth, Texas (Lockheed Martin from 1995), United States
- UK collections—
First flight, number built and top speed are for the whole family (F-16A to F-16V & Block 70/72); engine, crew and dimensions are for the F-16CM Block 50 01-7052 modelled here.
History
The F-16C
The F-16 grew out of an argument. In the late 1960s a small group in and around the Pentagon, known as the Fighter Mafia, argued that American fighters had become too big, too heavy and too expensive, and that a small, agile aircraft would beat them in a dogfight. In January 1972 the US Air Force asked industry for a Lightweight Fighter as a technology demonstration. General Dynamics built the single-engined YF-16 and Northrop the twin-engined YF-17, and in January 1975 the Air Force chose the YF-16 for production. That June, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway chose it too, in a deal the press called the sale of the century, and European assembly lines followed.
It was the first production fighter designed to be slightly unstable in flight, relying on a fly-by-wire system to keep it under control and giving it very quick handling. The pilot sat under a frameless bubble canopy in a seat reclined by 30 degrees, to help withstand high g, and flew with a side-stick on the right-hand console rather than a stick between the knees. The wing blended into the fuselage, and the single intake sat under the nose, where it kept a clean flow of air at high angles of attack. The first operational aircraft reached the US Air Force in January 1979, and the Air Force officially named it the Fighting Falcon the next year, though its pilots call it the Viper.
The small day fighter became a multi-role aircraft. The F-16C, which appeared in 1984, had a better radar and cockpit, and the Block 50 of the early 1990s paired the General Electric F110-GE-129 engine with the larger intake already used on earlier General Electric-powered jets. After the F-4G Phantom retired in 1996, Block 50 aircraft with the HARM Targeting System took over the US Air Force’s work of hunting enemy air defences. Israeli F-16s scored the type’s first air-to-air kill in April 1981 and bombed the Osirak reactor in Iraq that June. Lockheed bought General Dynamics’ aircraft business in 1993, and production continues at Greenville, South Carolina. More than 4,600 have been built, for over twenty-five air forces. None is in a UK museum.
This airframe
F-16CM Block 50 01-7052 ‘SW’
F-16CM 01-7052, construction number CC-230, carries ‘AF 01 052’ and the ‘SW’ tail code of the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, whose F-16s specialise in suppressing enemy air defences. Its red fin band marks the wing’s 77th Fighter Squadron, the ‘Gamblers’. It is an in-service aircraft, not a museum piece, and the model follows two photographs taken at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, on 1 and 2 March 2016 during Exercise Red Flag 16-2: two-tone grey with FS 36118 along the spine and beside the canopy and FS 36270 elsewhere, a warm grey radome, dark grey ‘SW’ and ‘AF 01 052’ on the fin, a red band with ‘GAMBLERS’ under the fin cap and low-visibility national insignia. F-16.net’s airframe database lists it as a Block 50. Its shape follows a three-view of the F-16A, with the wider inlet and the nozzle styled from photographs of other F-16s, so their exact outlines are estimates. The photographs show it carrying missiles and an electronic-warfare pod; the model is parked with two drop tanks, targeting and HTS pods and empty launchers. The wing insignia are inferred from US Air Force practice, the badges are simplified, and the flank emblem and small stencils are left off.
Where to see one
Not on charge
Still in widespread service. Many survivors are in US museums; none is in a UK museum.