F-16 Aircraft Database

Lost in the Desert

Attrition mostly takes place in the early years of an F-16. This particular F-16, a USAF F-16A built in 1979 crashed 3 years after it rolled off the production line. The tail can still be found at the crash site in the Nevada desert.

Twice as Nice

This USAF F-16 crashed twice, but was repaired both times - hence it got named 'Twice as Nice'. It was later sold to Israel. The first crash was in 1984 - sometimes when aircraft systems designers integrate various components into an airframe, they forget to examine what happens if a component should fail. Such was the case in the original F-16 design. An electrical connector (cannon plug) came loose and unfortunately the wiring for critical components like brakes and arrestor hook all went through the same connector. The pilot attempted to land the aircraft and engage the arrestor wires. Both wires were missed and the aircraft went off the end of the runway. The pilot stayed with the aircraft and the rescue crews had to cut through the canopy to reach hime - the hole in the canopy can be seen in the photo. After this accident they changed the electrical schematic and wiring harness so that those features went through different connectors now. The second crash occurred a few years later. Cause of mishap was a stuck throttle cable at 70% power. The incident happened at MacDill and the pilot landed the aircraft then ejected when he couldn't stop it. It then went off the end of the runway.

Color Scheme Champion

Adorned with 2 sets of tail markings for the 50th anniversary of the Tiger Meet (left side) and 60th anniversary of 31 sqn (Right side). This marks the 4th time this airframe has been adorned with a special color scheme for the NATO Tiger Meet. This makes this airframe the overall 'color scheme champion' of all F-16s worldwide.

Testing the AGM-119A Penguin

An AGM-119A Penguin anti-ship missile is mounted on the pylon of RNoAF F-16A block 15 #685 from 331 skv during testing of the missile in the mid eighties. Norway is the only country using the Penguin missile.

War Bird

The only F-16 from the Thunderbirds ever to be made combat ready. The Tbirds are required to be able to make their F-16s combat ready within 72 hours. In 1988, this was put to the test. The ground crew pulled it off with time to spare, except for the paint scheme. The jet flew a combat training sortie and afterwards received the nickname 'War Bird'.

The airframe never flew in Dutch colors nor did it receive the intended J-883 serial.

Long-range Viper

In 1994 Lockheed proposed the F-16 ES (Enhanced Strategic), a reach-extended version of the F-16 for the Israeli Strike Fighter competition. The aircraft was the first F-16 to be fitted with Conformal Fuel Tanks (CFTs) and was fitted with internal FLIR to reduce the drag associated with LANTIRN pods. When combined with a 320-gal. centerline tank and two 600-gal. underwing tanks, the F-16ES had an unrefueled mission radius of 1,025 mi. (with a typical strike load of two 2,000-lb. bombs and four air-to-air missiles), representing a 40% increase in range. After losing the Israeli contract to the F-15I, LMTAS re-used some ES technologies (like the CFTs) in new F-16 models like the Block 60.

F-35 Inlet Installed

Modified inlet as an X-35 test bed with General Electric F110-GE-129 engine. This inlet resembles the airflows that are created when flying with the X-35. The flight test program consisted of twelve flights flown in nine days in December 1996.

A-16 CAS Trials

In the late eighties this aircraft and a number of additional F-16s were painted in the 'European One' lizard camouflage scheme and were tested in the Close Air Support role as a possible replacement of the A-10 Thunderbolt. The proposed A-16 never materialized.

7,000 Flying Hours

Was the first F-16 airframe to break 7,000 flight hours and a small commemorative decal was applied to the tail in 2008. This Viper also wears 15 various bomb markings and three gun strafe markings from a prior OIF deployment and hence was called 'Lethal Lady'. It was retired just a few months after reaching the 7,000 flight hours.

Tactical Nuke

A rare shot illustrating the nuclear role of the F-16: a USAF F-16C from the 10th TFS at Hahn AB in Germany seen carrying a BDU-38 simulator (B-61 nuclear dummy). The aircraft was participating in the weapons training deployment Exercise Sabre Thunder over the Bardenas-Reales Range on June 1st, 1988.

Russian Bear

The first European Aggressor F-16, marked with bort code '01' and parked in front of a Hardened Aircraft Shelter adorned with a Russian bear and star. The aircraft belonged to the only USAFE aggressor squadron - the 527th AS - based at RAF Bentwaters in the UK.

Thrust-Vectoring F-16

The F-16 VISTA (Variable stability In-flight Simulator Test Aircraft) was designed to demonstrate the tactical utility of thrust vectoring in close-in air combat and the use of integrated control of thrust vectoring in flight. The aircraft has demonstrated a steady angle of attack of as much as 86 degrees and a transient angle of attack of up to 180 degrees. In other words, the aircraft can fly backwards for a brief time. The VISTA was later re-designated as the NF-16D, transferred to NASA and was used in the MATV and AVEN test programs.

Dutch MiG Killer

In 1999, Maj. Peter Tankink scored the first post-WWII kill for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, shooting down a Yugoslav MiG-29 with an AIM-120A Amraam. A silhouette of a Fulcrum was painted just below the canopy rail.

Arctic Aggressor

The first F-16 to receive an arctic camo scheme to be used in its role as an Aggressor in the newly established 18th Aggressor Squadron based at Eielson AFB, Alaska. The photo attached to this history was taken in November of 2007, before the aircraft transferred to the 18th AS.