View allAll Photos Tagged generaldynamics
Appropriately adorned in Tiger marks and carrying the
'Les Pirates Embarqués' fin marks, Belgian Air Force General-Dynamics F-16AM 'FA-94' from No.31 'Tiger' Squadron cleans up the gear up during the afternoon launch on the 2017 NTM 2nd Spotter's Day at Landivisiau, Brittany
IMG_9891
Piction ID: 83794530 Tactical stand-off weapon--Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---Note: This material may be protected by Copyright Law (Title 17 U.S.C.)--Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
The weapons bay doors on one side can open. The other side is covered by a door that shows the outline of the M61 gun.
F-111E. C.N. E-190. Seen here wearing the colors of the 79th TFS from RAF Upper Heyford. Last flew with the 77th TFS. Withdrawn from service to AMARC 6 July, 1993 as AA FV0169. Departed AMARC 4 January, 2012 to HVF West LLC Gov't Demil (scrapped). Photo Credit's: Unknown to me (Kodachrome Slide). Date of actual photo is unknown.
F-16's of the USAF Viper Demonstration team
at Toronto Lester B. Pearson Airport (YYZ)
CIAS 203 - performer
94-0047/SW - Lockheed Martin (General Dynamics) F-16CM Block 50 Fighting Falcon - United States Air Force (USAF)
VIPER Demonstration - special c/s - named "VENOM"
with back-up aircraft 92-0906 in the back-ground
F-111A 67-0047 The aircraft was delivered to the USAF on October 27, 1968. Was retired from the 389th TFTS, 366th TFW at Mountain Home, and AFB on August 31, 1990, and had accumulated 2,031 flights and 4,855.1 flight hours. It was used as a ground trainer at Sheppard AFB.(Seems a incorrect ST tail code however)
General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon msn82-1011 de 1984
Royal Danish Air Force (25/03/1997 - ..)
JPO Orange-Caritat
25/05/2019
USAF, RDAF.
Gilze Rijen, 21 June 2008.
Open day at Gilze Rijen. With 'tiger tank'. Strange, cause 313 squadron is the tiger squadron.
F-16 C Block-52+ Tiger Demo Team - Polish Air Force
Poznań-Krzesiny Air Base (EPKS)
REG: 4056
Arkadiusz Kamieniecki - airporn.pl
88421514 :Piction ID--Boeing B-52 launched Tomahawk installations---Please tag these photos so information can be recorded.---- Digitization of this image made possible by a grant from NEH: NEH and the San Diego Air and Space Museum
With the clag rolling away, an Aviano based F-16CM, 89-2057, from the 510th FS, gains a little height whilst passing through the Mach Loop.
The Sidewinder can be lowered from a trapeze. Simply dropping it from the weapons bay wouldn't work. , because it is an IR-guided missile that needs to achieve lock-on before it is launched.
Four Top Gun adversary aircraft from NAS Miramar, CA, inflight, 01 January 1991. Shown (L-R) A-4F Skyhawk BuNo 155027, NFWS-52, A-4F Skyhawk BuNo 155000, NFWS-50, a USN F-16N Fighting Falcon, and a USMC F-16N Fighting Falcon BuNo 163269, NFWS-42. Official U.S. Navy photo.
Kleine Brogel, 17 July 2007.
An Italian F-16A after landing at 'KB' in Belgium. There were four Italian Falcons that day plus many more from other countries.
What would become arguably the most successful fighter aircraft since World War II started modestly, and like many late 20th-Century fighter designs, as a result of lessons learned in the Vietnam War. Among those lessons was that large, heavy fighters were not always the answer: the F-4 Phantom II, while a superlative aircraft, had often found itself outclassed by smaller, more nimble North Vietnamese MiG-17s and MiG-21s. The call for the US Air Force to develop its own lightweight fighter was spearheaded by fighter pilot and air combat theorist John Boyd. At first, Boyd’s proposals were dismissed by the USAF, who feared losing funding for the F-15 Eagle then in development. Boyd and others were able to convince the USAF of the usefulness of a light, cheap fighter as a complement to the heavy, expensive F-15, and finally the USAF agreed to issue a requirement for a Lightweight Fighter (LWF)—though with no guarantee that it would actually buy it.
Both General Dynamics and Northrop responded with designs, which would become the YF-16 and YF-17 Cobra. The first YF-16 was rolled out in December 1973, and first flew in January of the next year—accidentally, as the prototype veered off the runway and the test pilot felt it safer to takeoff rather than try to steer it back. The YF-16 won the flyoff against the YF-17, and the USAF selected it to go into service as the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Simultaneously, the YF-16 won a flyoff for the Multinational Fighter; the MNF was planned to be the successor to a number of aircraft in NATO service, and the competition between the YF-16, YF-17, France’s Mirage F.1M, and the SEPECAT Jaguar was fierce. Once selected, production of the F-16 would be vastly expanded, with it not only being produced in the United States, but also in the Netherlands and Belgium as well (to be followed later by Turkey and South Korea). In a short time, the F-16 had come a long way.
Production F-16s differed from the prototype by being slightly larger and heavier, though the initial production batch retained the “small tail” tailplanes of the prototype. Though heftier than the prototype, the F-16 retained the basis of Boyd’s ideal lightweight fighter: it was extremely maneuverable, to the point that a number of early F-16s crashed as the aircraft could take more than the pilot. Its maneuverability is due both to a favorable thrust-weight ratio and its deliberately unstable design: the F-16 was one of the first fighters to employ a wholly-fly-by-wire control system, with the hydraulic controls of older fighters being replaced by microprocessors controlled by a central computer. The microprocessors are able to make the dozens of decisions per second required by the design. For this reason, the F-16 is also known as the “Electric Jet.” General Dynamics had attempted to mitigate these effects on the pilot by reclining the ejection seat backwards and moving the control stick to the side. The pilot also has superb visibility due to the F-16’s bubble canopy.
The Fighting Falcon’s baptism of fire would not take long. Israel, which had been among the first to purchase the F-16, scored the type’s first air-to-air kill over Lebanon in 1981, as well as its first significant strike mission, the raid on Iraq’s Osirak reactor. In the following year, Israeli F-16s scored possibly as many as 30 victories over Syrian MiGs during the 1982 Lebanon War. Pakistani F-16s were to see limited action during the Soviet-Afghan War, shooting down 10 Afghani and Soviet aircraft that strayed into Pakistan’s airspace. For the United States, the F-16 would see its first action in the First Gulf War, though here the USAF used the Falcon’s large payload in strike missions; USAF F-16s saw no aerial action during this conflict.
By the early 1990s, the USAF relegated its F-16A models to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, reequipping its units with later mark F-16Cs. Many of the ANG’s F-16As were upgraded to ADF standard. The last USAF F-16A left service around 2000; aircraft not placed in storage at AMARC in Arizona have been sold to other nations, while some are scheduled for conversion to QF-16 drones.
F-16As are among the most prolific fighters in the world, in service worldwide, flown by ten nations, three of which are in NATO. These aircraft (save those flown by Venezuela) have been significantly upgraded to F-16 MLU (Mid-Life Upgrade) standard, making them equivalent to F-16Cs. Besides Israeli and Pakistani kills in the type, a Dutch F-16AM shot down a Serbian MiG-29 during the Kosovo War in 1999. Other NATO F-16AMs have seen service over Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan. These older models of F-16s will remain in service until probably 2020 at least, to be replaced by the F-35A Lightning II.
81-0776 entered service with the USAF's 401st Tactical Fighter Wing at Torrejon, Spain in 1983, but was not there long before it was returned Stateside to the 388th TFW at Hill AFB, Utah in 1984. It would remain there until 1988, when it was briefly transferred to the 347th TFW at Moody AFB, Georgia. 81-0776 was then modified to a F-16A(ADF) Air Defense Fighter variant, with the capability of firing AIM-7 Sparrow radar-guided missiles and a spotlight for identifying aircraft at night.
In 1990, it was sent to the 136th Fighter-Interceptor Group (New York ANG) at Niagara Falls, and in 1994, made its way to Big Sky Country, and the 120th FW (Montana ANG) at Great Falls. When the 120th reequipped with the F-16C/D, 81-0776 was supplied to the Royal Jordanian Air Force, and as of this writing serves with 6 Squadron at Muffawaq Salti Airbase at Azraq.
My friend Erik took this on a Cub Scout trip around 1995-1996, and sent it to me, hoping I could give him the rundown to 81-0776's eventual fate. He was pretty happy to hear it's still around. This is another picture that shows off the 120th's markings, and the missing inspection panel shows the interior of the base of the tail. Many thanks to Erik and his dad for letting me post this.
PictionID:44932517 - Catalog:14_015841 - Title:Sycamore Canyon Details: Aerial of Test Stand S-3; Sycamore Construction Date: 12/01/1959 - Filename:14_015841.tif - - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection. The processing, cataloging and digitization of these images has been made possible by a generous National Historical Publications and Records grant from the National Archives and Records Administration---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum
F-111F. C.N. F-26. 495th TFS from RAF Lakenheath. Flew in Operation Eldorado Canyon. Withdrawn from service to AMARC 4 December, 1995 as AA FV0230. Departed AMARC to HVF West LLC Gov't Demil 2 September, 2010 (scrapped). Photo Credit's: Unknown to me (Kodachrome Slide dated June 1989)
PictionID:45183261 - Catalog:14_017700 - Title:Shuttle Centaur Date: 1986 - Filename:14_017700.TIF - - - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection. The processing, cataloging and digitization of these images has been made possible by a generous National Historical Publications and Records grant from the National Archives and Records Administration---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum