General Dynamics F-16N Falcon
The F-16N grew out of a requirement by the US Navy for an advanced adversary dissimilar fighter trainer to replace aging A-4E/F Skyhawks. Using the Block 30 F-16C/D as a basis, the F-16N was downgraded, as it was not anticipated to ever see actual combat. The APG-68 radar was replaced with the APG-66, the internal structure was strengthened to better handle the stress of low-level manuevering, and while the F-16N can carry Sidewinders, it is not equipped to fire or drop any other ordnance, and the M61 Vulcan gatling cannon is removed.
18 F-16Ns and four two-seat TF-16Ns were delivered beginning in 1987 to Top Gun, the US Navy’s fighter training school. With the temporary reduction in aggressor squadrons during the mid-1990s and due to wing cracking, the F-16N force was retired in 1995, though the Navy has since bought ex-Pakistani F-16C/Ds as aggressors.
Dad used the 1/48 scale Hasegawa kit for his F-16N, meant to represent Kenyatta Patterson's aircraft from his novel "Desert Horizons." For the most part it is out of the box, painted in two shades of light and medium gray over blue-gray. It is equipped with a single inert AIM-9 Sidewinder and a DACT instrumentation pod. (Patterson's callsign "Cheetah" is a reference to the character being a marathon runner; though it can't be seen from this angle, it has gear door art of a grinning Garfield with the legend "Never trust a smiling cat," taken from an A-10 decal sheet.)
General Dynamics F-16N Falcon
The F-16N grew out of a requirement by the US Navy for an advanced adversary dissimilar fighter trainer to replace aging A-4E/F Skyhawks. Using the Block 30 F-16C/D as a basis, the F-16N was downgraded, as it was not anticipated to ever see actual combat. The APG-68 radar was replaced with the APG-66, the internal structure was strengthened to better handle the stress of low-level manuevering, and while the F-16N can carry Sidewinders, it is not equipped to fire or drop any other ordnance, and the M61 Vulcan gatling cannon is removed.
18 F-16Ns and four two-seat TF-16Ns were delivered beginning in 1987 to Top Gun, the US Navy’s fighter training school. With the temporary reduction in aggressor squadrons during the mid-1990s and due to wing cracking, the F-16N force was retired in 1995, though the Navy has since bought ex-Pakistani F-16C/Ds as aggressors.
Dad used the 1/48 scale Hasegawa kit for his F-16N, meant to represent Kenyatta Patterson's aircraft from his novel "Desert Horizons." For the most part it is out of the box, painted in two shades of light and medium gray over blue-gray. It is equipped with a single inert AIM-9 Sidewinder and a DACT instrumentation pod. (Patterson's callsign "Cheetah" is a reference to the character being a marathon runner; though it can't be seen from this angle, it has gear door art of a grinning Garfield with the legend "Never trust a smiling cat," taken from an A-10 decal sheet.)