The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force and has proved itself to be one of the most prolific aircraft projects and successful aircraft programs of recent years. Designed as an air superiority day fighter, it has evolved into a highly successful all-weather multirole aircraft, since production was approved in 1976. Although no longer being purchased by the USAF, improved variants continue to be built for export customers, up to and including the latest F-16V ‘Viper’ version.
The Fighting Falcon's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while manoeuvring, an ejection seat reclined thirty-degrees from vertical to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of the relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system, that helps to make it an agile aircraft. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and eleven locations for mounting weapons and other mission equipment and can carry fuselage mounted conformal fuel tanks and a variety of targeting pods and ECM equipment.
The first F-16A rolled out on 20 October 1976 and first flew on 8 December, and the initial two-seat model achieved its first flight on 8 August 1977. The initial production-standard F-16A flew for the first time on 7 August 1978 and its delivery was accepted by the USAF on 6 January 1979. The US Air Force, including the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard, flew the F-16 in combat during Operation ‘Desert Storm’ in 1991 and in the Balkans later in the 1990s. F-16s also patrolled the no-fly zones in Iraq during Operations ‘Northern Watch’ and ‘Southern Watch’ and served during the wars in Afghanistan (Operation ‘Enduring Freedom’) and Iraq (Operation ‘Iraqi Freedom’) from 2001 and 2003 respectively and Air Force F-16s took part in the intervention in Libya. Part 1 of the F-16 story looks at the origins of the aircraft and its service with the US Air Force and US Navy, as well as the different variants, proposed versions, test platforms and sub-types.
As the series title ‘Real to Replica’ suggests, the book also contains colour profiles, walk arounds, and how to build plastic models of the F-16 in popular scales, making this an ideal reference for the enthusiast and modeller alike.
