General Dynamics F-16XL

NOTE:   visit     www.techenlife.com       for more details regarding this blog and military aviation!!

 

The General Dynamics F-16XL is a derivative of the F-16 Fighting Falcon, with a cranked-arrow delta wing. It was entered in theUnited States Air Force’s (USAF) Enhanced Tactical Fighter (ETF) competition but lost to the F-15E Strike Eagle. Several years after the prototypes were shelved, they were turned over to NASA for aeronautical research.

In 1977, the F-16XL started out as the F-16 SCAMP (Supersonic Cruise and Maneuver Prototype) at General Dynamics Fort Worth. Under the leadership of Harry Hillaker (father of the original F-16), the original goal of the program was to demonstrate the applicability of supersonic transport technologies to military aircraft.^[1] That year, under the supervision of Hillaker and Jim Gordon, Andrew Lewis was given a supposedly quick project to study the applicability of supersonic transport technologies to military aircraft. The big wing generated a lot of lift, and typical aerodynamic limitations of delta wings were overcome by the F-16’s relaxed static stability. Kenny Barnes led the work into tweaking the F-16s electronic flight control system to allow control at high angles of attack. The wing was also a big fuel tank which boosted range considerably. The study went on for two years with important contributions from many other engineers, but Lewis was able to stay out in front and designed the wing’s plan form, airfoil, twist and camber. The goal of the cranked arrow was to have a high sweep inboard panel for low drag at supersonic speeds, and a low sweep outboard panel that would provide better handling and maneuverability at subsonic speeds.

Model 400 design team, starting left: Harry Hillaker, Andrew Lewis, Kenny Barnes, Jim Gordon

Working closely with NASA’s Langley Research Center, the company invested significant Internal Research and Development (IRAD) funds for wind tunnel testing and that led to the Model 400. It featured all moving wing tips for roll control and an all moving vertical tail. These surfaces were actually the horizontal tail surfaces from the F-16A. These surfaces were later dropped as they did not provide adequate control at low speed, high angle of attack. Also, there would have been no provision for wing-tip mounted missiles. The main wing incorporated forebodystrakes to enhance vortex generation for high angle of attack maneuverability, negative stability for improved subsonic lift and reduced supersonic drag. It was built around a 40-inch fuselage stretch. Both the large wing and fuselage stretch yielded a dramatic increase in range at all speeds. In 1979, with a strong positive response by the USAF, GD released the Model 400 for a company funded preliminary design effort.^[2]

[edit]Enhanced Tactical Fighter competition

F-16XL compared with a conventional F-16.

In 1980, the USAF signed on as a partner, providing the third and fifth production F-16 airframes. These two airframes became the only extant examples of the F-16XL.

In March 1981, the USAF announced the Enhanced Tactical Fighter program to procure a replacement for the F-111 Aardvark. The concept envisioned an aircraft capable of launching deepinterdiction missions without requiring additional support in the form of fighter escort or jamming support. General Dynamics submitted the F-16XL, while McDonnell Douglas submitted a variant of the F-15 Eagle. Though the two aircraft were competing for the same role, they were fairly different in design approach: the F-15E is basically an F-15D two-seat trainer with the back-seat station modified to support ground-attack instruments, while the F-16XL has major structural and aerodynamic differences from the original F-16. As such, the XL would have required much more effort, time and money to put into full production. Additionally, the Strike Eagle has two engines, which gives it more thrust and thus the capacity to carry more weapons and/or armor into combat. Furthermore, engine redundancy can be very useful for an aircraft whose mission involves operating within the reach of anti-aircraft artillery (AA) and surface-to-air missiles (SAM), in addition to the standard threats offighter aircraft and interceptors.

The Legendary F-16 Fighting Falcon

NOTE:   visit     www.techenlife.com       for more details regarding this blog and military aviation!!

 

Since i have passed my junior school, i have been a great fan of this brilliant machine.

F-16 is my all time favorite combat aircraft. I have a dream to fly his beast once in my life.

Known as a “Viper” among the fighter pilots, F-16  Fighting Falcon is a dogfighter with numerous innovations including a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, a seat reclined 30 degrees to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system that makes it a highly nimble aircraft. The F-16 has an internal M61 Vulcan cannon and has 11 hardpoints for mounting weapons, and other mission equipment.

Closeup of the front view of an F-16 Fighting Falcon showing the bubble canopy

With a MAX speed of over mach 2, F 16 can get into enemy’s territory in no time.

The F-16 is a single-engined, very maneuverable, supersonic, multi-role tactical aircraft. The F-16 was designed to be a cost-effective combat “workhorse” that can perform various kinds of missions and maintain around-the-clock readiness. It is much smaller and lighter than its predecessors, but uses advanced aerodynamics and avionics, including the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire (RSS/FBW) flight control system, to achieve enhanced maneuver performance. Highly nimble, the F-16 can pull 9-g maneuvers and can reach a maximum speed of over Mach 2.

Early models could also be armed with up to six AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking short-range air-to-air missiles (AAM), including a single missile mounted on a dedicated rail launcher on each wingtip. Some variants can also employ the AIM-7 Sparrow medium-range radar-guided AAM, and more recent versions can be equipped with the AIM-120 AMRAAM. It can also carry other AAM; a wide variety of air-to-ground missiles, rockets or bombs; electronic countermeasures (ECM), navigation, targeting or weapons pods; and fuel tanks on eleven hardpoints – six under the wings, two on wingtips and three under the fuselage.

The F-16 design employs a cropped-delta planform incorporating wing-fuselage blending and forebody vortex-control strakes; a fixed-geometry, underslung air intake inlet supplying airflow to the single turbofan jet engine; a conventional tri-plane empennage arrangement with all-moving horizontal “stabilator” tailplanes; a pair of ventral fins beneath the fuselage aft of the wing’s trailing edge; a single-piece, bird-proof “bubble” canopy; and a tricycle landing gear configuration with the aft-retracting, steerable nose gear deploying a short distance behind the inlet lip. There is a boom-style aerial refueling receptacle located a short distance behind the rear of the canopy. Split-flap speedbrakes are located at the aft end of the wing-body fairing, and an arrestor hook is mounted underneath the aft fuselage. Another fairing is situated at the base of the vertical tail, beneath the bottom of the rudder, and is used to house various items of equipment such as ECM gear or drag chutes. Several later F-16 models, such as the F-16I variant of the Block 50 aircraft, also have a long dorsal fairing “bulge” that runs along the “spine” of the fuselage from the rear of the cockpit to the tail fairing; these fairings can be used to house additional equipment or fuel

workers checking the exhaust of VIPER

The F-16 was the first production fighter aircraft intentionally designed to be slightly aerodynamically unstable.^[43] This technique, called “relaxed static stability” (RSS), was incorporated to further enhance the aircraft’s maneuver performance. Most aircraft are designed with positive static stability, which induces an aircraft to return to its original attitude following a disturbance. This hampers maneuverability, as the tendency to remain in its current attitude opposes the pilot’s effort to maneuver; on the other hand, an aircraft with negative static stability will, in the absence of control input, readily deviate from level and controlled flight. Therefore, an aircraft with negative static stability will be more maneuverable than one that is positively stable. When supersonic, a negatively stable aircraft actually exhibits a more positive-trending (and in the F-16’s case, a net positive) static stability due to aerodynamic forces shifting aft between subsonic and supersonic flight. At subsonic speeds the fighter is constantly on the verge of going out of control.

The F-16A/B was originally equipped with the Westinghouse AN/APG-66 fire-control radar. Its slotted planar-array antenna was designed to be sufficiently compact to fit into the F-16’s relatively small nose

  

Closeup view of the M61 Vulcan — this is the two vent type

The four-vent cannon port on an F-16A

In short, Viper or Fighting Falcon is a legendary generation 4.5 aircraft which is the most advanced and technically sooper dooper machines of its era..