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90-0024 General Dynamics F-16D Fighting Falcon of the Turkish Air Force at Mildenhall Air Fete 26/5/01.
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 FB-111A "Aardvark" 67-0159
History:
67-0159 (MSN B1-01)
Converted to F-111G.
1980: To SM-ALC (Sacramento Air Logistics Center).
Used as an Engineering Flight Test Aircraft by the 2874th Test Squadron until 1987
1984: Received the orange and white paint scheme for conspicuity during testing
1987: Grounded, it was used in support of the N-Ray facility and used as the prototype for F-111 bead blast and polyurethane paint
This aircraft was used to test:
1. New operational flight programs
2. Prototypes of new systems
3. New wing seals
4. Terrain following radar (TFR) humidity testing in support of the SM-ALC Blue Ribbon Panel 1n 1984
5. Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) attack radar test in 1985 and 1986
6. First Air Force Weapon System to flight test a polyamide composite - installed in the left hand translating cowl in July 1969
7. Used as photo and safety chase until grounded in 1987
Retired to McClellan AFB CA Museum.
Unusually fitted with Triple Plow I intakes instead of TP II.
Now on display at Aerospace Museum of California, McClellan, California.
88482946 :Piction ID--Tomahawk missile near General Dynamics F-111---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-111A "Aardvark" 69-6507
Constructed as a FB-111A.
1969: Taken on Strength/Charge with the United States Air Force with s/n 69-6507.
Transferred to 380th Bomb Wing, Plattsburgh AFB, NY.
Operated with markings: "Madame Queen"
To National Museum of the United States Air Force Loan Program, Wright Field, Dayton, OH.
Loaned to Castle Air Museum, Atwater, CA.
1989: Placed on display with Castle Air Museum, Castle Airport (formerly Castle AFB), Atwater,
69-6507
FB-111A-CF
69
Merced/CastlePreserved
Oct 1991
Sep 2019
'Madame Queen'
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-16A cn61-627 de 1984
Royal Danish Air Force, le 19 janvier 2016 à Orange-Caritat
ex 83-1074 de l'USAF (84-94)
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.
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, celebrating their 50th year at RIAT in July 2017.
In the foreground is a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16.
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.
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.
General-Dynamic F-16A Block20 MLU 15105 93-04569 Força-Aéra-Portuguesa Esquadra-301 Jaguarés
50years NATO NTM2019
Call No.: 10-004100
Title: Convair/General Dynamics Plant and Personnel
Year: c1950s
Corp. Name: Convair/General Dynamics
Description: 8 x 10 Black and White Glossy Print
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
Call No.: 10-003628
Title: Convair/General Dynamics Plant and Personnel
Year: c1950s
Corp. Name: Convair/General Dynamics
Description: 8 x 10 Black and White Glossy Print
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
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.
Call No.: 10-003342
Title: Convair/General Dynamics Plant and Personnel
Year: c1950s
Corp. Name: Convair/General Dynamics
Description: 8 x 10 Black and White Glossy Print
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
F-111E. C.N. 189. 20th TFW Commanders Jet. Survives and is on display at the Hill AFB Aerospace Museum, nicknamed "My Lucky Blonde". Photo Credit's: Unknown to me (Kodachrome Slide dated 30 May 1981 at RAF Mildenhall)
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
Call No.: 10-004181
Title: Convair/General Dynamics Plant and Personnel
Year: c1950s
Corp. Name: Convair/General Dynamics
Description: 8 x 10 Black and White Glossy Print
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
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
Call No.: 10-003774
Title: Convair/General Dynamics Plant and Personnel
Year: c1950s
Corp. Name: Convair/General Dynamics
Description: 8 x 10 Black and White Glossy Print
Repository: San Diego Air and Space Museum Archive
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
Lockheed Martin F-16C Fighting Falcon
S/N: 86-0357
Las Cruces Airshow 2009 "Thunder on the Rio Grande"
Photo by www.kensaviation.com