General Dynamics F-16N "Fighting Falcon" BuNo.163277 (40)

NFWS - United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.

History:

Constructed as a F-16C.

Circa 1985: - Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Air Force with s/n 85-1378.

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Navy with BuNo 163277.

1989: October, - US Navy VF-126 Marked NJ-603

1995: February, - US Navy NFWS, Mirimar, California.

To National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Pensacola, FL

1996: February, - Preserved NAS Miramar

1998: June, - Loaned to Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs International Airport, Palm Springs, CA.

General Dynamics F-16N "Fighting Falcon" BuNo.163277 (40)

NFWS - United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.

History:

Constructed as a F-16C.

Circa 1985: - Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Air Force with s/n 85-1378.

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Navy with BuNo 163277.

1989: October, - US Navy VF-126 Marked NJ-603

1995: February, - US Navy NFWS, Mirimar, California.

To National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Pensacola, FL

1996: February, - Preserved NAS Miramar

1998: June, - Loaned to Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs International Airport, Palm Springs, CA.

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.

Despite the F-16C tail, this is actually an earlier Block 15 F-16A, 82-0976. It was delivered to the USAF's 3246th Test Wing at Eglin AFB, Florida in 1983, and would spend its entire active duty career there as a testbed and chase aircraft; 82-0976 never served with a frontline USAF unit. In 1991, it was transferred to NASA as N816NA, again as a test/chase aircraft; initially, it retained its USAF camouflage, but in 1995 got a more easily seen overall white scheme. In 2004, N816NA was retired and placed on display as a gate guard for NASA activities at Palmdale, but was later moved to join a F-104N as a gate guard to Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works.

If the F-104N could use a touchup, N816NA/82-0976 looks like it just arrived yesterday. Of course, the overall white paint helps it reflect the sun. The "Dryden Flight Research Center" legend was likely added after retirement; it only carried the NASA logo on the tail in service. It is displayed with two drop tanks. I originally had this as a F-16C--the distinctive tail antenna threw me off! We saw this one in 2025.

Basic scan of slide taken Mildenhall 23 May 1987

FA-123 General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon 31 Smaldeel Belgian Air Component

General Dynamics BGM-109G "Cruise Missile"

The Gryphon is a mobile Ground Launched Cruise Missile (GLCM) designed to serve as a tactical nuclear weapon in Europe. It is virtually identical to the non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles used by the United States in several Middle East conflicts.

Towson Commons. Only half the sign was put up at this point.

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

87371002 :Piction ID--Convair Model 48 Charger in flight---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

'Buzzards' of Aviano Air Base low level. General Dynamics F-16C - Ullswater, Lake district , UK.

510th Fighter Squadron

87370589 :Piction ID--Convair Model 48 Charger in flight---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

(91-0392) cn CC-90 -

General Dynamics F-16CM Fighting Falcon -

USAF '5' 57th Wg./ADS -

"Thunderbirds" -

Royal Intl. Air Tattoo RIAT '17 -

RAF Fairford,

14-Jul-2017 Gloucestershire, England, GBR.

N587G Gulfstream 550 (5520) General Dynamics - London Luton Airport 10-02-2016

88086908 :Piction ID--Tomahawk missile design concept---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

88102584 :Piction ID--Missile on stand 07/08/1964---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

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

88086960 :Piction ID--Tomahawk missile potential applications---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

Catalog #: 00019060

Manufacturer: Grumman

Designation: (Grumman) EF-111A

Official Nickname: Raven

Notes:

Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive

General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon

c/n: 6H-107

History: 87-0051, FA107, [FA-107]

Belgian Air Force

86956169 :Piction ID--Convair 990 in flight---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

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

NATO NTM2019

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

General Dynamics F-16C "Fighting Falcon" 84-1244 (WA-44)

64th Aggressor Squadron (64 AGRS), Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

84-1244

WA 44

F-16C-25-CF

5C-81

64th AGRS

Active

Oct 2011

Feb 2021

blue/blue/grey c/s

F-16C 90-0183 of the USAF 52nd FW at RIAT 2023

General Dynamics F-16 over Nellis AFB

86956134 :Piction ID--Convair 990 in flight---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

General Dynamics F-16C "Fighting Falcon" 84-1244 (WA-44)

64th Aggressor Squadron (64 AGRS), Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada

84-1244

WA 44

F-16C-25-CF

5C-81

64th AGRS

Active

Oct 2011

Feb 2021

blue/blue/grey c/s

General Dynamics F-16N "Fighting Falcon" BuNo.163277 (40)

NFWS - United States Navy Fighter Weapons School, Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California.

History:

Constructed as a F-16C.

Circa 1985: - Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Air Force with s/n 85-1378.

Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Navy with BuNo 163277.

1989: October, - US Navy VF-126 Marked NJ-603

1995: February, - US Navy NFWS, Mirimar, California.

To National Naval Aviation Museum, NAS Pensacola, Pensacola, FL

1996: February, - Preserved NAS Miramar

1998: June, - Loaned to Palm Springs Air Museum, Palm Springs International Airport, Palm Springs, CA.

General Dynamics, F-16, Storage area at AMARC, located on Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, Arizona. 07 April 2005.

88-0024 cn 4R-026 -

General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon -

TurAF 3 AJUK/132 Fi. -

"Solotürk" -

Royal Intl. Air Tattoo RIAT '24 (Arr Day 1) -

RAF Fairford,

17-Jul-2024 Gloucestershire, England, GBR.

PictionID:43051676 - Catalog:14_004434 - Title:Sycamore Canyon Details: Test Setup 27A 246; Flammable Liquid Trailer 02/22/1960 - Filename:14_004434.tif - - - - Image from the Convair/General Dynamics Astronautics Atlas Negative Collection---Please Tag these images so that the information can be permanently stored with the digital file.---Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum

General Dynamics F-16C Fighting Falcon of the 314th Fighter Squadron (314 FS) "Warhawks" from Holloman AFB at the 2017 China Lake Air Show held at NAWS China Lake, March 18-19, 2017.

HMS Radio Testing at General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

HMS Radio Testing at General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ

86933537 :Piction ID--Convair engineers standing by Convair 880 nose 07/17/1961---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

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés

50years NATO NTM2019

1616 cn 61-633 -

General Dynamics F-16AM Fighting Falcon -

RomAF 86 AB/Esc.53 -

Royal Intl. Air Tattoo RIAT '24 (Arr Day 2) -

RAF Fairford,

18-Jul-2017 Gloucestershire, England, GBR.

88482664 :Piction ID--Tomahawk missile near General Dynamics F-16---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

HMS Radio Testing at General Dynamics C4 Systems in Scottsdale, AZ